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Chinese create the vine of youth |
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Written by DJ Spiess
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Thursday, 10 January 2008 |
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The fountain of youth may be filled with wine, Chinese wine!
The red wine health craze is getting even crazier. We’ve reported several times about the health benefits of resveratrol in red wine, and how it triggers a gene that encourages longevity . Now Chinese researchers have engineered a grape variety that produces grapes that have six times the average amount of resveratrol.  Will these grapes fill the fountain of youth? Yuejin Wang at the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi province, China engineered the grape variety with an extra gene. The extra gene triggers resveratrol production. The researchers’ primary goal was to make a grape that was more resistant to fungus. Resveratrol apparently also retards fungi growth (is there anything this compound can’t do?).
The scientists plan to make wine with the new grape. Here’s to their health!
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