Speeding towards efficient stomata

我们都知道植物有可以打开和关闭的气孔。这让植物控制了水分的流失，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，一些植物进化出气孔特征，使它们在遇到干燥环境时能够更快地关闭气孔。例如，蕨类植物有“慢气孔”，而后来进化的禾本科植物有“快气孔”。这些快速的气孔使草能够征服干燥的大草原和沙漠环境，并导致我们选择谷物作为主要的粮食作物。令人惊讶的是，尽管我们依靠“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，该学生将首次使用红外气体交换来量化气孔效率，并比较植物类群之间以及作物与其野生近缘种之间的气孔效率。这些将与细胞壁免疫细胞化学和rna转录组研究进行比较，以确定支持提高气孔效率的关键遗传、发育和结构特征。所获得的知识对于设计更适合更频繁干旱时期的作物将是无价的。

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.