Murashige and skoog basal salts

Cultivated tomato S. lycopersicum cv. M82 seeds were obtained from the C.M. Rick Tomato Genetic Resource Center (https://tgrc.ucdavis.edu/; RRID:SCR_014954). Unless otherwise noted, plants were grown under sterile conditions. Tomato seeds were surface sterilized in 40% bleach for 20 min with gentle rocking, rinsed five times with sterile water, and then sown in a straight line on Falcon 150 mm–by–25 mm cell culture dishes (Corning Inc., Corning, NY, USA) containing half-strength Murashige and Skoog basal salts (Caisson Labs, Smithfield, UT, USA), supplemented with Gamborg’s B-5 vitamins (Caisson Labs, Smithfield, UT, USA), 3% sucrose (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Waltham, MA, USA), and 0.7% Phytoblend agar (Caisson Labs, Smithfield, UT, USA) adjusted to pH 5.8. The plates were wrapped in Micropore surgical tape (3M Company Inc., Maplewood, MN, USA), then oriented vertically in steel alloy 4.25″ by 4.5″ by 13.5″ plate racks (Spectrum Diversified Designs LLC, Solon, OH, USA), and stratified in the dark at 25°C for 5 to 7 days to germinate seeds. Thereafter, vertically oriented plates were transferred to a growth chamber and grown under a 12-hour diurnal cycle, 25°C/18°C, 175 μE light intensity.