UC Davis

Understanding the impact of elevated CO₂ (eCO₂ ) in global agriculture is important given climate change projections. Breeding climate-resilient crops depends on genetic variation within naturally varying populations. The effect of genetic variation in response to eCO₂ is poorly understood, especially in crop species. We describe the different ways in which Solanum lycopersicum and its wild relative S. pennellii respond to eCO₂ , from cell anatomy, to the transcriptome, and metabolome. We further validate the importance of translational regulation as a potential mechanism for plants to adaptively respond to rising levels of atmospheric CO₂ .