How plants open up: revealing the evolution of stomatal opening mechanisms

该项目旨在确定驱动气孔打开的新颖和保守的机制-植物气孔使光合作用能够获取二氧化碳。气孔运动强烈地影响着植物的生产力和水分利用效率，深刻地影响着地球的气候和陆地生态。该项目将解决我们对植物如何打开气孔以响应其环境以及控制这一基本过程的基因进化史的理解中的关键空白。一个主要的预期结果是了解气孔打开途径的多样性，这将最终导致对植物对环境变化反应的改进预测，并有助于未来有针对性地修改植物生长。

This project aims to identify novel and conserved mechanisms that drive the opening of stomata – plant pores that enable CO2 acquisition for photosynthesis. Stomatal movements strongly affect plant productivity and water use efficiency and have profoundly influenced the earth’s climate and terrestrial ecology. This project will address critical gaps in our understanding of how plants open stomata in response to their environment and the evolutionary history of the genes controlling this fundamental process. A major expected outcome is knowledge of the diversity of stomatal opening pathways, which should ultimately lead to improved predictions of plant responses to environmental change and assist future targeted modification of plant growth.