Now, super-wine to boost your lifespan

London, Jan 8 : The health benefits of wine have since long been known, but now fans of the fruity cocktail may have something new to cheer about, for Chinese scientists have made a wine made from genetically engineered grapes which might help boost the drinker's longevity.

Yuejin Wang and colleagues at the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi province, China, have produced a grapevine six times richer in resveratrol - the compound in red wine associated with health benefits.

The researchers made the wine equipped it with an extra gene from a wild Chinese vine, reports New Scientist.

Vitus pseudoreticulata has an unusual variant of the stilbene synthase gene, which triggers resveratrol production.

The team plans to make wine from the GM (Genetically Engineered) vine, although their major goal is to make grapevines more resistant to fungus, which is kept in check by resveratrol.

ANI