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

这个项目的目的是确定新的和保守的机制，驱动气孔-植物气孔的打开，使光合作用能够获得二氧化碳。气孔运动强烈影响植物生产力和水分利用效率，并深刻影响地球气候和陆地生态。这个项目将解决我们在理解植物如何打开气孔对环境的反应以及控制这一基本过程的基因的进化史方面的关键空白。一个主要的预期成果是了解气孔开放途径的多样性，这最终应该导致改进对植物对环境变化的反应的预测，并有助于未来对植物生长的有针对性的修改。

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.