Adam Jozwiak

Scientists find a surprising case of 'reverse evolution' in wild tomatoes

tomwt — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 22:26:52 +0000

Scientists find a surprising case of 'reverse evolution' in wild tomatoes tomwt Thu, 07/17/2025 - 15:26 More CNAS in the Media Adrian Villellas | Earth.com July 16, 2025

EARTH.COM - Wild tomatoes rooted on the raw lava of Fernandina and Isabela Islands have done something biologists once filed under “nearly impossible,” reviving a molecular defense that disappeared from their relatives millions of years ago during species evolution.

The phenomenon has been traced to a tiny tweak in the plants’ chemistry, and it now stands as the clearest plant example of reverse evolution, the re‑emergence of an ancestral trait after a long dormancy.

Lead author Adam Jozwiak at the University of California, Riverside, working with colleagues from the Weizmann Institute, mapped the unexpected comeback.

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Adam Jozwiak

Scientists discover Galápagos tomatoes evolving backwards, bringing back ancient traits lost millions of years

tomwt — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:46:37 +0000

Scientists discover Galápagos tomatoes evolving backwards, bringing back ancient traits lost millions of years tomwt Mon, 07/14/2025 - 07:46 More CNAS in the Media Arezki Amiri | Daily Galaxy July 14, 2025

DAILY GALAXY - In an unexpected discovery, researchers have found that wild tomatoes in the Galápagos Islands seem to be evolving in reverse. This fascinating phenomenon, previously thought to be rare, suggests that evolution isn’t always a straightforward process. The finding, which challenges conventional wisdom, could lead to exciting breakthroughs in genetic research.

Tomatoes Turning Back Time on the Galápagos
A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside) and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have uncovered a surprising case of evolutionary reversal in wild tomatoes. This study, published in Nature Communications, focused on two tomato species, Solanum cheesmaniae and Solanum galapagense, both native to the Galápagos Islands. Researchers observed that these plants, particularly those from the western islands, were reverting to ancestral traits that had been lost millions of years ago.

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Adam Jozwiak

Evolution experts say wild tomatoes in Galápagos are going 'back in time'

tomwt — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:42:51 +0000

Evolution experts say wild tomatoes in Galápagos are going 'back in time' tomwt Thu, 07/10/2025 - 08:42 More CNAS in the Media Beki Hooper | BBC Wildlife Magazine June 27, 2025

BBC WILDLIFE MAGAZINE - Evolution is commonly thought of as a process that creates new and more complicated traits. But this is not always the case.

On the youngest islands of the Galápagos archipelago, wild tomato plants have adapted to their environment by producing toxins identical to those used by their ancestors millions of years ago.

Tomatoes are a part of the nightshade family, which also includes potatoes and aubergines. Many nightshades, including potatoes, produce alkaloids – bitter toxins that protect the plants against predation.

An international team of researchers were studying these alkaloids because – at high concentrations - they are toxic to humans. The team therefore wanted to get a better grip on how plants make them.

...

The flip to ancestral alkaloids may be an adaptation to the harsher conditions in the western islands. “The plants may be responding to an environment that more closely resembles what their ancestors faced,” lead author of the study, Dr. Adam Jozwiak tells BBC Wildlife. But he stresses that more research is needed to support this theory.

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Adam Jozwiak

Something strange is happening to tomatoes growing on the Galápagos Islands

tomwt — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:30:09 +0000

Something strange is happening to tomatoes growing on the Galápagos Islands tomwt Thu, 07/10/2025 - 08:30 More CNAS in the Media Sarah Kuta | Smithsonian Magazine July 09, 2025

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - Some tomatoes growing on the Galápagos Islands appear to be going back in time by producing the same toxins their ancestors did millions of years ago.

Scientists describe this development—a controversial process known as “reverse evolution”—in a June 18 paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

Tomatoes are nightshades, a group of plants that also includes eggplants, potatoes and peppers. Nightshades, also known as Solanaceae, produce bitter compounds called alkaloids, which help fend off hungry bugs, animals and fungi.

When plants produce alkaloids in high concentrations, they can sicken the humans who eat them. To better understand alkaloid synthesis, researchers traveled to the Galápagos Islands, the volcanic chain roughly 600 miles off the coast of mainland Ecuador made famous by British naturalist Charles Darwin.

They gathered and studied more than 30 wild tomato plants growing in different places on various islands. The Galápagos tomatoes are the descendents of plants from South America that were probably carried to the archipelago by birds.

The team’s analyses revealed that the tomatoes growing on the eastern islands were behaving as expected, by producing alkaloids that are similar to those found in modern, cultivated varieties. But those growing on the western islands, they found, were creating alkaloids that were more closely related to those produced by eggplants millions of years ago.

Researchers suspect the environment may be responsible for the plants’ unexpected return to ancestral alkaloids. The western islands are much younger than the eastern islands, so the soil is less developed and the landscape is more barren.

To survive in these harsh conditions, perhaps it was advantageous for the tomato plants to revert back to older alkaloids, the researchers posit. “The plants may be responding to an environment that more closely resembles what their ancestors faced,” says lead author Adam Jozwiak, a biochemist at the University of California, Riverside, to BBC Wildlife’s Beki Hooper.

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Adam Jozwiak

These wild tomatoes are reversing millions of years of evolution

tomwt — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:23:35 +0000

These wild tomatoes are reversing millions of years of evolution tomwt Wed, 07/09/2025 - 10:23 More CNAS in the Media Tudor Tarita | ZME Science July 09, 2025

ZME SCIENCE - On the Galápagos Islands, wild tomatoes are producing molecules not seen since the Ice Age, reversing a genetic trajectory millions of years in the making. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of California, Riverside and the Weizmann Institute of Science have documented a rare and striking example of what they call “reverse evolution.”

“It’s not something we usually expect,” said Adam Jozwiak, a molecular biochemist at UC Riverside and lead author of the study. “But here it is, happening in real time, on a volcanic island.”

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Adam Jozwiak

Some tomatoes are evolving backwards in real time, scientists find

tomwt — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:11:21 +0000

Some tomatoes are evolving backwards in real time, scientists find tomwt Wed, 07/09/2025 - 10:11 More CNAS in the Media Darren Orf | Popular Mechanics July 09, 2025

POPULAR MECHANICS - The famous ape-to-man illustration, known as The March of Progress, depicts evolution as a one-way street toward evolutionary perfection—but nature isn’t always so simple.

Many organisms have displayed what appears to be “reverse evolution,” or regression, where ancient attributes of past ancestors seem to reappear down the evolutionary line. Cave fish, for example, will lose eyesight and return to a state similar to a previous ancestor that lacked this visual organ, but the argument remains whether this is reverse evolution or simply the ending of an evolutionary pathway that creates a vestigial organ.

Of course, complex animals are not the only ones that appear to rewind the evolutionary clock. A new study in Nature Communications, led by scientists at University of California (UC) Riverside, analyzed species of tomato in the Solanaceae family, comparing populations from both eastern and western islands of the Galápagos—that famous Pacific island chain that inspired Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory nearly 200 years ago.

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Adam Jozwiak

Retro tomatoes: a species of the plant is evolving backward

tomwt — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 16:50:27 +0000

Retro tomatoes: a species of the plant is evolving backward tomwt Tue, 07/08/2025 - 09:50 More CNAS in the Media Devika Rao, The Week US July 08, 2025

THE WEEK - Some tomatoes have evolved to possess the characteristics of their ancestors. While it is rare, there have been instances of species displaying traits from further back in evolution. But for the first time, scientists have now been able to prove it through genetic evidence. And there's potential for similar evolutionary changes in the future as the environment changes, even in humans.

Blast from the past
Wild tomatoes on the Galápagos Islands are using chemical defenses that are reminiscent of their ancestors, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications. The flowering plants have "quietly started making a toxic molecular cocktail that hasn't been seen in millions of years, one that resembles compounds found in eggplant, not the modern tomato," said a statement about the study.

Tomatoes are nightshades, like potatoes and eggplants, and nightshades produce alkaloids, which are "bitter toxins that protect the plants against predation," said the BBC. Researchers discovered that tomatoes "on the older eastern islands produced alkaloids found in modern cultivated tomatoes," while tomato plants "on the younger western isles were making unique alkaloids." And the latter alkaloids were largely produced by ancestral tomatoes.

"Some people don't believe in this," Adam Jozwiak, a molecular biochemist at the University of California, Riverside, and the lead author of the study, said in the statement. But the "genetic and chemical evidence points to a return to an ancestral state. The mechanism is there. It happened."

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Adam Jozwiak

These plants might actually be de-evolving

tomwt — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 18:32:32 +0000

These plants might actually be de-evolving tomwt Mon, 07/07/2025 - 11:32 More CNAS in the Media Joshua Hawkins | BGR June 29, 2025

BGR - We know that the world and its various inhabitants, from plants to animals, are still evolving. In fact, some even believe that humans are actively evolving in different parts of the world right now. But a group of plants found in the Galápagos archipelago might be doing the opposite and de-evolving. Researchers argue that despite how controversial it might sound, tomatoes in the Galápagos actually seem to be going backwards, not forwards.

A controversial idea come to life
De-evolution, or reverse evolution, is a bit of a controversy among evolutionists, and for good reason. Evolution isn’t really meant to have a rewind button. Some organisms might re-acquire old traits that were once lost, but they usually do so through new genetic pathways. But these tomato plants appear to be doing something unexpected.

“It’s not something we usually expect,” Adam Jozwiak, a molecular biochemist at UC Riverside and lead author of the study, shared in a statement. “But here it is, happening in real time, on a volcanic island.”

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Adam Jozwiak

Reverse evolution? These wild tomatoes are turning back time

tomwt — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:54:51 +0000

Reverse evolution? These wild tomatoes are turning back time tomwt Mon, 06/30/2025 - 09:54 More CNAS in the Media Rodielon Putol | Earth.com June 29, 2025

EARTH.COM - Evolution is taking an unexpected turn on the volcanic islands of the western Galápagos. Wild tomato plants are producing a toxic blend of chemicals that hasn’t existed in their species for millions of years.

Somehow, these plants have started making molecules more like eggplants than the modern tomato. This bizarre twist in evolution is being studied by scientists at the University of California, Riverside.

The research team describes this phenomenon as a rare case of “reverse evolution.” That term raises eyebrows in the world of biology, where evolution is typically seen as a one-way street – not a boomerang.

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Adam Jozwiak

Meet the tomatoes that are evolving backwards – with a toxic twist

tomwt — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 15:26:20 +0000

Meet the tomatoes that are evolving backwards – with a toxic twist tomwt Mon, 06/30/2025 - 08:26 More CNAS in the Media Michael Franco | New Atlas June 29, 2025

NEW ATLAS - The evolutionary ladder is meant to be climbed one rung at a time with an organism shedding some traits and gaining others on the way up. However, in a very surprising twist, some tomatoes on the Galapagos islands are inching back down the ladder.

When they found the backwards-reaching plants, researchers from the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside), were examining crops on the Galapagos islands in an effort to understand the role alkaloids have in their structure. Crops belonging to the nightshade family like potatoes, eggplants, and tomatoes produce these bitter-tasting molecules to help ward off predation by fungi, insects, and other animals. Too many alkaloids, though, can make the plant toxic to humans.

“Our group has been working hard to characterize the steps involved in alkaloid synthesis, so that we can try and control it,” said Adam Jozwiak, a molecular biochemist at UC Riverside and lead author of the study.

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Adam Jozwiak