Analysis of tomato agronomic traits that are highly sensitive to environmental changes by using microclimate sensing

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19H02951
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 39030:Horticultural science-related
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: Yamamoto Eiji 明治大学, 農学部, 特任講師 (40738746)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: トマト / 環境センシング / モデリング / ゲノムワイド関連解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we used a sensing system that records the growth environment of each individual to measure differences in the growth environment among tomato plants in a greenhouse, and analyzed the effects of these differences on physiological disorders of fruit using statistical modeling approaches. The results showed that even in the same greenhouse, small differences in growth environment affected the final phenotypes. Moreover, growth stages in which the environment has a significant effect on phenotypes were detected using a time-series analysis. For example, just before harvest and just after flowering were important for fruit cracking and fruit set rate, respectively. In addition, we performed transcriptome analysis, which enabled improvement of prediction accuracy of statistical modeling by narrowing down explanatory variable based on gene expression information.

Free Research Field

植物遺伝育種学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

気候変動などの環境変化や人口増加による食料不足など、日本を含む世界が抱える食料問題の解決には、 植物そのもののパフォーマンスを上げること(育種)が重要である。本研究は、農作物の生育と環境との相互作用を詳細に解析することで、農作物の各個体の遺伝的ポテンシャルのより正確な評価が可能となり、ひいては農作物育種の効率化・高速化に貢献する。