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Title

Need for a space-adapted tomato: Engineering a new space tomato and improvement

Mentor

Won-Gyu Choi, Ph.D.

Department

Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biotechnology

Biosketch

Won-Gyu Choi received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. During his Ph.D., he studied the biochemical and biological functions of aquaporin members in Arabidopsis in plant development and stress responses. Then, as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Choi began studying long-distance signals, such as systemic calcium and ROS signaling, in plants. He began his current position in the fall of 2016 and is an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biotechnology at the ҹɫÊÓƵ. He continues his study of the biological functions of calcium and ROS signaling in plants such as Arabidopsis, rice, and tomatoes in response to various environmental stresses (e.g., temperature stress, abiotic and biotic stress crosstalk, PAMPs, MAMPs, etc.) and is developing space crops to support the building of sustainable space habitats.

Project overview

The long-term goal of this project is to create nutraceutical fruit production systems to support humans living in space. The focus here is on enhancing a newly developed Space-Adapted Tomato (SATom or SAT) with traits to: 1) improve fruit production under stress conditions relevant to space travel, and 2) eliminate a toxic tomatine biosynthetic pathway in leaves to make the entire plant edible. To establish a new space adapted tomato variety, we first created a new dwarf tomato variety by breeding together multiple traits for flavor and dwarfism. This foundational plant, called SATom-1, is small, produces bite-sized fruits (similar to a parental Micro-Tom variety), and includes desirable flavor traits inherited from a parental Red Robin variety. One of the most important traits for a space adapted tomato is the ability to produce high quality fruit under stressful, non-Earth environments. With this goal, we used a CRISPR editing strategy to engineer our SATom-1 variety with a trait for conditional parthenocarpy (referred to here as SATom-2).

Therefore, the Pack Research Experience Program (PREP) student will gain hands-on training in molecular biology, cell biology (e.g., fluorescence imaging using GFP and calcium indicators), plant cell culture, plant growth under specific conditions relevant to the space environment, and biochemical assays while they work with our Space-Adapted Tomato (SATom) lines. These training include, but are not limited to, molecular genotyping via PCR, CRISPR-Cas gene editing and plant propagation, phenotypic and stress evaluation, and biochemical and nutritional assays.

By participating in this project, the PREP student will develop strong skills in modern molecular biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, and growing plants in controlled environments, which will help support the development of sustainable food systems for future space missions.

Student Training Opportunities

• PCR-based genotyping and cloning: Extracting plant genomic DNA, performing PCR to verify CRISPR-Cas edits, and confirming target genetic traits in space-adapted tomato lines.
• Fluorescence Imaging and Microscopy: Applying fluorescence imaging techniques using Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and calcium indicators to visualize and evaluate cellular and physiological responses in real-time in intact plants.
• Assessment of Phenotype and Stress Response: Growing plants under controlled-environment conditions in a growth room and greenhouse simulating spaceflight-relevant stresses, such as hypoxia and microgravity, to assess growth traits, flowering, fruit production, nutrient content, and effects of CRISPR-Cas gene editing.
• Biochemical and Nutritional Assays: Performing quantitative biochemical assays to measure nutritional profiles, antioxidant properties, and secondary metabolite changes (such as verifying the elimination of unwanted leaf toxins) in harvested tissues.

Required Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications: Students must have excellent communication skills, maintain good academic standing, honesty, diligence, and reliability in handling collaborative research tasks.

Preferred Qualifications: Students with prior experience in general biology, plant biology, biochemistry, or chemistry, and excellent organizational skills suited to maintaining careful experimental records are preferred.

Maximum hours per week

The PREP student will be expected to work on the project for a maximum of 10 hours per week.

Pack Research Experience Program information and application