Speeding towards efficient stomata

加速实现高效气孔

• 批准号: 2283110
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2283110
• 关键词: Speeding; towards; efficient; stomata

We all understand that plants have stomata that can open and shut. This letsplants control their water loss, and led to them 'greening the Earth' half a billionyears ago, thus paving the way for animals. Since then some plants haveevolved stomatal features that allow them to close their stomata faster whenthey encounter drying environments. For example, ferns have 'slow stomata'and the later evolving grasses have 'speedy stomata'. These speedy stomatahave equipped grasses to conquer dry savannah and desert environments, andhave led to our selection of cereals as major food crops. Surprisingly, despiteour reliance on 'speedy stomata' for food security, we know little about themolecular underpinnings of stomatal efficiency. In this project, for the first time,the student will use infrared gas exchange to quantify stomatal efficiency andcompare this between plant groups, and between crops and their wild relatives.These will be compared with cell wall immunocytochemical and RNAseqtranscriptome studies to pinpoint the key genetic, developmental, and structuraltraits that underpin improved stomatal efficiency. The knowledge gained will beinvaluable in designing crops better suited to more frequent drought periods.

我们都知道植物有可以打开和关闭的气孔。这种植物控制了它们的水分流失，并导致它们在5亿年前“绿化地球”，从而为动物铺平了道路。从那时起，一些植物进化出了气孔特征，当它们遇到干燥的环境时，它们可以更快地关闭气孔。例如，蕨类植物具有“缓慢的气孔”，而进化较晚的草本植物具有“快速气孔”。这些快速的气孔装备了草来征服干旱的大草原和沙漠环境，并导致我们选择谷物作为主要粮食作物。令人惊讶的是，尽管我们依赖“快速气孔”来保障粮食安全，但我们对气孔效率的分子基础知之甚少。在这个项目中，学生将首次使用红外气体交换来量化气孔效率，并将其在植物群体之间以及作物与其野生近缘关系之间进行比较。这些将与细胞壁免疫细胞化学和RNA序列转录组研究相比较，以找出支撑气孔效率提高的关键遗传、发育和结构特征。所获得的知识对于设计更适合更频繁的干旱时期的作物将是非常宝贵的。