Climate resilient high-quality tomato varieties for sustainable production

The long-term goal of this multidisciplinary project is to commercialize high water use efficiency (WUE) and heat tolerance (HT) tomato varieties with high-quality fruit, reduced foodborne pathogens (FBP) contamination, and improved postharvest shelf-life. In the timeframe of the project, we will focus on developing advanced breeding lines and molecular breeding tools (e.g., markers) that will be useful to both public breeders and seed companies for the further development of elite varieties with enhanced WUE, HT, and fruit quality targeted to specific growing regions and production systems (field, greenhouse, and Controlled Environment Agriculture). By combining traits that benefit producers (WUE, HT, shelf-life, and regional adaptation) and consumers (quality and decreased FBP susceptibility) with a robust evaluation of key marketing factors, our project activities will also support the eventual adoption of the resulting improved varieties across the supply chain to consumers.The project goal will accomplish the five stakeholder-driven objectives:Objective 1. Identify novel tomato genotypes with improved WUE, HT, disease resistance, and high nutritional and fruit quality. We believe that a broad panel of germplasm from across the U.S. will provide sufficient diversity for identifying loci/alleles and markers associated with key traits to improve abiotic/biotic stress tolerance and tomato fruit quality/nutrition, broadening trait improvement opportunities for all breeding programs.Objective 2. Develop and share advanced germplasm with the traits in Objective 1 and regional adaptation. The selected accessions from Obj 1 will have regional-specific adaptability, allowing us to develop germplasm specific to various geographic regions with unique climatic conditions.Objective 3. Produce advanced breeding lines and test their economic feasibility. A deep reservoir of germplasm diversity will enable the development of high-WUE and HT tomato accessions with high quality, shelf-life, texture, and nutrient traits. Informing consumers about the enhanced quality, health benefits, and climate resilience will support acceptance.