TOMATO PISTIL TUBES DURING GERMINATION AND TUBE ELONGATION UNDER ACUTE HEAT STRESS OVER A SHORT TIME COURSE

Temperatures above the optimum can result in lower crop yields with substantial reductions in reproductive success. Temperature stress increases the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in pollen of Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) resulting in impaired pollen performance. Here, we explore 4 plant varieties (Heinz, Malintka, Nagcarlang, Tamaulipas) with varying abilities to cope with high temperatures (34C) during the pollination stage. Over a time course of 120 minutes, samples were subjected to 34 acute heat stress and collected at 0, 30, 60 and 120 minute time points. Control samples were also collected. All sample collections were library prepped (Poly A selection) and sequenced on an Illumina Hiseq 4000. We identified changes in transcripts whose expressions are correlated with reproductive success providing insight into genetic targets for future development of plants with enhanced tolerance to the temperature stress associated with climate change.