Plant growth and yield study of iaa9-3 and iaa9-5 mutants under high temperature conditions

Abstract

Tomatoes are one of the horticultural crops that have high economic value. Climate change as one of the impacts of global warming has caused a decrease in the yield and quality of the tomatoes production. The reduction of tomato productivity in high temperature due to the failure of fruit formation. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to create new varieties of tomatoes that can grow and produce well in current environmental conditions, especially in tropical region that has a high temperature. Using a mutation approach, iaa9-3and iaa9-5 are generated. Those mutants have a mutation in IAA9 gene which directly affected the formation of parthenocarpic fruit. This study was carried out to identify the growth and yield of the two mutants under high temperatures. Two IAA9 mutants, iaa9-3 and iaa9-5, and also Wild Type Micro-Tom (WT-MT) as a control, were grown at two temperature conditions, namely normal temperature (25 ± 5°C) and high temperature (35 ± 5°C). The results showed that under high temperature conditions, all plants experience a decrease in plant growth in the form of plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, number of fruits. WT-MT does not have the ability to form fruit under high temperature conditions, however iaa9-3 and iaa9-5 mutants are still able to form fruit even though the number of fruits produced is less than under normal conditions.