Abstract
Tiny tomato pollen has an outsized role in reproduction, providing
essential cellular and genetic material for fertilization and fruit
generation. Unfortunately, high temperatures reduce pollination
efficiency, harm fruit set and size, and ultimately diminish yield. This
project attempts to answer basic questions about pollen growth and
function during normal and heat-stressed conditions. Pollen from
~200 genetically diverse tomato and wild relative
accessions will be observed as it grows at various temperatures.
High-throughput microscopy will be paired with computer vision to
phenotype the thousands of image sequences generated by this experiment.
By combining pollen growth phenotypes with genome sequence data for all
accessions, we plan to identify relevant genomic regions to target for
functional description and crop improvement.