The tomato seeds
The tomato seeds that classes will be germinating this year come from traditional seed production methods; they have not been developed through the use of biotechnology.
They are a hybrid variety of seed from H.J. Heinz Canada - H9478. They produce a plum tomato that was developed using standard crossing techniques by horticulturalist Dale Smith, a member of the original Science Committee on the Tomatosphere Project Team. Dale now works for HeinzSeed in Stockton, California but he maintains a close relationship with the project, along with his Canadian colleague, Scott Makey, from Heinz Canada.
At one point H9748 occupied nearly 50% of the Heinz acreage; today, H9478 is still grown by Heinz Canada tomato growers but newer varieties with improved field and factory characteristics have supplanted some of the acreage previously grown. H9478 is a versatile variety used for tomato paste products, fresh juice, and whole peel. The plants will produce mature fruit in a period of 95 to 105 days depending upon growing conditions. Not only is H9478 an important variety for Heinz Canada, but it is popular with other Eastern North American companies and is also grown widely in Italy, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
The tomato seeds for 2010 will be in two envelopes - labelled ”B” and “T”. The seeds have been identified with these initials as a tribute to the contributions made to the Canadian space program and to Tomatosphere by Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut, Dr. Robert (Bob) Thirsk.
One package of seeds is a control group and the other is the "treatment" group. The treatment group of Tomatosphere seeds was taken into space to the International Space Station (ISS) by CSA Astronaut, Julie Payette, on Mission STS-127, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour from July 15th to 31st, 2009. During that mission, the astronaut crew delivered critical supplies to the Station, as well as experiments subsequently berthed to the laboratory platform. The Tomatosphere seeds were sent in four packages of 100 000 seeds each and spent approximately two months on the Station.
The seeds were returned to Earth in late September 2009 onboard a NASA shuttle flight and were then sent to Stokes Seeds in Welland, Ontario for packaging in order to be ready for distribution in the spring of 2010.
The “treatment” to which the seeds were exposed included a number of elements during their two-month stay on the ISS. These were: 1) an increase in pressure on the Shuttle flight to the ISS, 2) the weightless environment while on board the ISS, 3) a slight increase in the amount of radiation which all living things experience outside of the Earth’s protective atmosphere and 4) on return to the Earth’s atmosphere, the seeds were again exposed to increased pressure.
Some variations of this treatment of Tomatosphere seeds have been used in past experiments but the rare opportunity to replicate exposure to ISS conditions could not be missed. This experiment will provide scientifically useful information by helping us to verify the results of the only other experiment on board the ISS in 2006.
Tomatosphere is sponsored by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, Heinz Canada Ltd, HeinzSeed, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Stokes Seeds and the University of Guelph.
