SAT now receives support from Biovision, the Swiss organization headed by Hans Herren.
The Search for a Less Thirsty Tomato To find out how tomato plants resist drought, Danforth Center researchers cut their water ration 18 days after planting, then them using three kinds of imaging. Near-infrared images show the plant’s water content. Fluorescence images show where photosynthesis is occurring. Tomatoes are typically grown in hot, dry climates with a lot of irrigation water—more than 13 gallons per tomato on average. To create less thirsty varieties, Dan Chitwood’s team at the Danforth Center are crossing tomato plants with a wild relative from Peru’s southern coastal desert, one of the driest places on Earth.