Diospyros kaki Diospyros kaki Diospyros kaki, also called persimmon, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus "Diospyros". Although its first published botanical description was not until 1780, the "kaki" is among the oldest plants in cultivation, known for its use in China for more than 2000 years. In some rural Chinese communities, the "kaki" fruit is seen as having a great mystical power that can be harnessed to solve headaches, back pains and foot ache. The persimmon ("kaki") is a sweet, slightly tangy fruit with a soft to occasionally fibrous texture. This species, native to China, is deciduous, with broad,
Genetically modified tomato cold and drought tolerance in transgenic "Arabidopsis thaliana" plants, was inserted into the tomato. This resulted in increased drought tolerance, but did not appear to have any effect on cold tolerance. Overexpressing a vacuolar Na/H antiport ("AtNHX1") from "A. thaliana" lead to salt accumulating in the leaves of the plants, but not in the fruit and allowed them to grow more in salt solutions than wildtype plants. They were the first salt-tolerant, edible plants ever created. Tobacco osmotic genes overexpressed in tomatoes produced plants that held a higher water content than wildtype plants increasing tolerance to drought and salt stress.