Esther van der Knaap, professor of horticulture in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, received $455,000 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study how proteins interact and regulate tomato fruit shape.
Although the genes that regulate the shape and weight of the tomato have been identified, there is little understanding of how they alter the dimensions of the fruit. This work will fill that gap, shedding light on fundamental plant processes that can be harnessed to improve factors that affect crop value.