New state-of-the-art imaging tools to study how crops adapt to environmental changes: Lycopersicum esculentum key study

Being sessile organisms, plants are subjected to environmental challenges during their en@re life. Both abio@c and bio@c stresses, such as water deficiency, salt stresses and pathogen aUack, could significantly influence plant growth as well as crop yield. Therefore, understanding plant response to external challenges is of vital importance. In the last decades, molecular signalling from the s@mulus percep@on to plant response was largely inves@gated. However, most of the available knowledges on plant signalling derive from studies performed on Arabidopsis thaliana model plant. To inves@gate how crops deal with environmental s@muli, we decided to focus our aUen@on on Lycopersicum esculentum. Tomato represents a promising model plant since it is a worldwide economically important crop and its growth as well as its produc@vity are sensi@ve to inappropriate external condi@ons. To beUer understand crop signalling we aimed at combining the development of a baUery of tomato lines expressing gene@cally encoded biosensors with tailored in-vivo imaging approaches. So far, we set up an efficient transforma@on protocol by employing an ad hoc vector. We succeeded in obtaining MicroTom lines expressing Ca2+ and pH biosensors which will allow us to study their dynamics in response to external s@muli or during plant development. Preliminary experiments carried out with the two sensor lines will be presented.