Graham Seymour, a professor of Plant Biotechnology at the University of Nottingham, said: "To support the tomato industry and further improve consumer satisfaction with new tomato varieties, a major scientific goal has been to identify genes that allow the targeted control of fruit softening without impacting other aspects of ripening.
"Such work would permit excellent fruit flavour and colour development, combined with enhanced shelf life."
University researchers said that, until now, the precise way tomatoes soften has remained a "mystery".
Professor Seymour and his team identified a gene that they can "turn off" in the tomato, a fruit with a £38bn annual global market.
He added: "If this gene is turned off, the fruit soften much more slowly, but still show normal changes in colour and the accumulation of taste compounds. This discovery can provide a means to refine the control of fruit softening in modern tomato cultivars."
The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and vegetable seeds supplier Syngenta Seeds.
Dr Charles Baxter from Syngenta said: "This discovery is a significant step forward in understanding processes involved in fruit development, allowing more refined control of this process in plant breeding."
The latest results from the university were published on Monday, July 25, in the academic journal Nature Biotechnology.
