Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8466 / SEEDWORLD.COM OCTOBER 2016 cola with a twist of lime, cherry cola. Different people have their favorite. In the not-too-distant future, we can do that with tomatoes. If you know the flavor attributes different people look for, you can optimize the flavor of the tomato for that demographic.” The Science of Taste In a nutshell, it’s sugars, acid and about 26 volatile chemicals that are responsible for the flavor profile of the tomato, according to Klee. Thisyear’sSolGenomicsConferencefeaturedanarrayofspeakers,whotalkedaboutthe latestadvancesinthefield.Itwasn’tjusttomatoesontheagenda.Alotofthetalkswere abouttheuseofCRISPR/Cas9intheothercrops,especiallypotato.Topicsrangedfrom geneticdiversityinawidearrayofSolanaceouscrops,high-throughputphenotyping, genomics,geneediting,rootandtuberstosystemsbiologyandworkshops. TherewasalsoafocusonhowalloftheSolanaceouscropsaretakingadvantageofthe broaddiversityoftheirwildrelativestoimproveeconomicallyimportanttraits—fromS. pimpinellifoliumintomato,toS.etuberosuminpotato,tolandracesofC.annuum,allthe waytoPhysallissp.fortomatillo. AmongthespeakerswasRogerChetelat,directoroftheC.M.RickTomatoGenetics ResourceCenterattheUniversityofCalifornia,Davis,whosekeynotespeechpaid homagetothecenter’snamesake,thelateCharlesRick. During his 60-year career at UC-Davis, Rick isolated and mapped hundreds of mutants, collected wild tomato relatives throughout South America, and founded a seed bank to preserve these and other stocks. His work helped establish the tomato as a model system for genetic studies, and made available rich germplasm resources with which to analyze the Solanum genome. “It’s Charlie’s stuff that forms the foundation of a lot of what we’ve done,” says Harry Klee, a University of Florida professor. Randi Jiminez, a horticulture student who helped manage the event’s Twitter account, notes that, “part of why Charlie Rick’s work was so foundational [to the work on Solanaceous crops] is that the germplasm he collected is what so much of this work uses.” The conference enjoyed its best attendance ever this year. According to organizer Allen Van Deynze, 360 people showed up for the event, which took place in the United States for the first time in over a decade. It will take place in Valencia, Spain, next year. SOLGENOMICS CONFERENCE MORE THAN JUST TOMATOES His new research is getting noticed. Not only was he a featured speaker at SolGenomics 2016, he says the feed- back from various companies within the industry has been tremendous. “For me, the take-home message is that breeders have not had the tools to effectively screen for flavor. It’s very complicated. A breeder can’t walk through a field and taste 1,000 toma- toes and pick the one that’s the best. It’s physically impossible,” he adds. “What we’re trying to do is reduce good flavor down to a set of molecular markers they can use without having to know much about flavor at all.” The research will also have posi- tive effects on yield as well. Klee and his team have already bred a tomato that’s a cross between one of the parents of Tasti-Lee and an heirloom variety. He says it’s got all the flavor of a classic heirloom tomato, but with double the yield. “It’s a much stronger plant,” he says. SW The SolGenomics Conference enjoyed its best attendance ever this year. According to organizer Allen Van Deynze, 360 people showed up for the event, which took place in the United States for the first time in over a decade. “Theconferenceshiftedclosertotheplantbreedingsideofthingsthisyear—itwasa goodmixofbasicresearchersandappliedresearchers.Thatcouldbewhywegotmore people,sincewetappedintoabroadercommunitythaninthepast,”VanDeynzesays. It was also the first year the event took to Twitter with its own account, @SolGenomics2016. UC-Davis horticulture student Randi Jimenez and Don Gibson managed the account, which updated followers throughout the event. “It worked really well to keep people informed and help them share information back and forth,” she says. Anaddedbenefit,shenotes,isthattheEmojiusedbyTwitterandmostsmartphones includeafairlywideswathofthesolanaceouscrops,makinganeventliketheSolGenom- icsConferenceevenmoreappropriateforTwitter. “Thank goodness Twitter has a tomato and a pepper and a petunia Emoji. There’s no potato, but we used a French fry Emoji for that,” she says with a laugh.