Live-imaging evaluation of the efficacy of elevated CO concentration in a closed cultivation system for the improvement of bioproduction in tomato fruits

Yamazaki, Haruaki*; Suzui, Nobuo; Yin, Y.-G.; Kawachi, Naoki; Ishii, Satomi; Shimada, Hiroaki*; Fujimaki, Shu

To maximize fruit yield of tomatoes cultivated in a controlled, closed system such as a greenhouse or a plant factory at a limited cost, it is important to raise the translocation rate of fixed carbon to fruits by tuning the cultivation conditions. Elevation of atmospheric CO concentration is a good candidate. In this study, we employed a positron-emitting tracer imaging system (PETIS), which is a live-imaging technology for plant studies, and a short-lived radioisotope C to quantitatively analyze immediate responses of carbon fixation and translocation in tomatoes in elevated CO conditions. We also developed a closed cultivation system to feed a test plant with CO at concentrations of 400, 1500 and 3000 ppm and a pulse of CO. As a result, we obtained serial images of C fixation by leaves and subsequent translocation into fruits. Carbon fixation was enhanced steadily by increasing the CO concentration, but the amount translocated into fruits saturated at 1500 ppm on average. The translocation rate had larger inter-individual variation and showed less consistent responses to external CO conditions compared with carbon fixation.