Determinants of tolerance to high-elevated ambient temperatures in tomato (HEA2T) – HEA2T

Plant response to heat stress has been extensively investigated for the past two decades. Heat stress (HT) applied to plants to study the effects of climate change often corresponds to T°C > at 40°C for 1h or less. However, global warming induces, among other things, long heat waves (1 week or more at 30 °C average / 24h). In order to identify the genetic determinants able to maintain a good trade-off between HT tolerance and plant crop yield, the Taiwanese (NTU) and French (INRAE) teams have developed collaborative and complementary strategies using tomato as model plant. Thus, NTU has identified several HT response genes using the expression-Quantitative Trait Loci (e-QTL) approach and INRAE has isolated HT-resistant tomato mutants to identify key genes for fruit yield maintenance. Using this unique and original plant material, the HEA2T project aims to characterize the response genes of plants to heat waves and to propose new genetic markers for crop breeding.