The aerial epidermis of plants plays a major role in environmental interactions, and the development of the cellular components of the aerial epidermis - trichomes, stomata and pavement cells - is still not fully understood. We have performed a detailed screen of the leaf epidermis of two generations of the well-established Solanum lycopersicum cv. M82 x Solanum pennellii ac. LA716 introgression line (IL) population using a combination of scanning electron microscopy techniques. Quantification of the trichome and stomatal densities in the ILs revealed 4 genomic regions with a consistently low trichome density. We also found ILs with abnormal proportions of different trichome types and aberrant trichome morphologies. This work has led to the identification of new, unexplored genomic regions with roles in trichome formation in tomato. We have investigated one interval in IL2-6 and identified a new function for SlMixta-like in determining trichome patterning in leaves. This illustrates how the SEM images, publicly available to the research community, provide an important dataset for further studies on epidermal development in tomato and other species of the family, Solanaceae.

植物的气生表皮在环境相互作用中起着重要作用，而气生表皮的细胞成分-毛状体，气孔和铺面细胞的发育仍未被完全了解。我们已经对成熟的茄属番茄的两代叶表皮进行了详细的筛选。M82 x茄属植物 结合使用扫描电子显微镜技术的LA716渗入系（IL）群体。IL中毛状体和气孔密度的定量显示了4个基因组区域，毛状体密度始终较低。我们还发现IL具有不同毛状体类型和异常毛状体形态的异常比例。这项工作已导致鉴定出在番茄毛状体形成中起作用的新的，尚未探索的基因组区域。我们调查了IL2-6中的一个区间，并确定了SlMixta-like的新功能，可确定叶片中的毛状体图案。这说明了向研究界公开提供的SEM图像如何为进一步研究番茄和茄科其他物种的表皮发育提供重要的数据集。