Juice from transgenic tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv Rutgers) frui
ts with reduced levels of pectin methylesterase (PME) activity due to
the expression of a PME antisense gene exhibited improvement in qualit
y. The percentage increase in juice from transgenic fruits over that o
f juice from wild type Rutgers ranged between 5.1-5.3 for total solids
, 3.8-6.1 for soluble solids, 70-80 for efflux viscosity, 180-220 for
serum viscosity and about 50 for precipitate weight ratio. Time of har
vest had no effect on quality of juice. Ketchup prepared from transgen
ic fruit juice had a lower Bostwick value, reduced serum separation an
d high serum viscosity compared to ketchup from parental Rutgers.