Magnesium (Mg) is the third most abundant cation in plants and in the last years defined as the „forgotten element“, highlighting it importance overlooked in modern crop production. Tomato is one of the most important horticultural crops, often grown in greenhouses where abiotic and biotic stressors seriously limit production.

One of the ways to avoid or reduce production losses caused by adverse conditions is to graft tomato onto proper rootstocks. Grafting is considered as efective tool to improve nutrient uptake and use efficiency, but present scarce findings showed negative effect on tomato Mg leaf concentration. This can result in latent Mg deficiency influencing carbohydrate production important for obtaining maximum yield and ensuring optimal crop quality. Within this proposal, screening of cultivars and rootstocks for Mg use efficiency will be done. We propose a way to alleviate possible Mg deficiency in grafted selected rootstocks and cultivars with additional Mg supply (root supply and foliar fertilization). The effect of grafting and fertilization treatments on the fruit quality will be comprehensively evaluated as also Mg transporters gene expression in chosen combinations.

The knowledge obtained could gain new techniques for selection of tomato cultivars and rootstocks (and other annual fruit vegetables) and will improve our understanding of rootstock/scion interactions regarding Mg uptake and Mg effects on vegetative and reproductive development. The results have the potential capacity to increase the competitiveness of the EU horticulture sector (primary production and breeding sector) and provide start for further studies at the fundamental and applied levels in plant science. This project deal with plant Mg nutrition and certainly will upgrade this under explored scientific field. Obtained results and gained knowledge should increase overall potential of the project team for establishing a long-term research group.