H2020 TomGEM Project: A holistic, multi-stakeholder approach to the design of new tomato varieties and management practices to improve yield and quality in the face of climate change

Global population growth and climate change are significant challenges for human society, hence the need to design new strategies to maintain high crop yields under unprecedented environmental conditions. The objective of TomGEM is to design new strategies aimed at maintaining high fruit and vegetable yields under severe temperature conditions, using tomato as the reference fleshy fruit crop.

Since yield is a complex trait that depends on the successful completion of different stages of reproductive organ development, including floral differentiation and efficient flower fertilization, TomGEM will use transdisciplinary approaches to investigate the impact of high temperatures on these developmental processes. The core of the project involves mining and phenotyping a wide range of genetic resources to identify cultivars/genotypes that display yield stability and to discover loci/genes that control floral initiation, pollen fertility, and fruit set. Furthermore, since high yield and elevated temperatures can be detrimental to quality traits, TomGEM will also address the issue of fruit quality.

The goal is to provide new targets and novel strategies to foster the breeding of new tomato cultivars with improved yield. TomGEM's main strength lies in its use of untapped genetic resources available to consortium members. It brings together expert academic researchers and committed private stakeholders to implement a multi-stakeholder approach based on demand-driven innovation.

Tomato growers and breeders are heavily involved from project design to implementation and dissemination of results. TomGEM will provide new targets and novel strategies to foster the breeding of new tomato cultivars with improved performance under suboptimal temperature conditions. TomGEM will translate scientific knowledge into practical strategies for better managing the interactions between genotype, environment, and management to offer holistic solutions to the challenge of increasing food quality and productivity.