Researchers at the University of Toronto have made a discovery that one day could speed the development of drought tolerant plants.
Led by botany professor Malcolm Campbell, the researchers have identified a gene that prompts plants to close the pores on their leaves at night. The opening and closing of the pores, known as stomata, affects the amount of moisture that plants exhale.
Campbell said the gene sits at the top of a hierarchy of genes that regulate light, carbon dioxide, water availability and air temperature in stomata.
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“It opens the door to the discovery of the suite of genes that control the opening and closing of those pores.”
He said part of the researchers’ effort now is to identify the other genes that regulate the stomata, although a plant’s basic set of 30,000 genes can make that like finding a needle in a haystack.
By understanding which genes are involved, plant breeders potentially could use the knowledge when developing crop varieties that are better able to withstand drought. For example, they could select for plants that are better able to retain water because of how their stomata function.
However, Campbell said the benefits could extend beyond that. Plants play an important role in removing carbon dioxide from the environment as they breathe through their stomata. The ability of plants to remove carbon from the air and fix it into the soil is viewed as an important part of efforts to manage greenhouse gases.
“We fully anticipate that we will be able to find out the impact of this gene not only on water use efficiency but also on carbon fixation,” Campbell said. “That obviously hasn’t been lost on us with regards to the importance of being able to fix, for example, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.”
Campbell said the genes shape the flux of carbon and water throughout entire ecosystems and affect the carbon cycle on a global scale.
“Obviously genes like this have been very important over evolutionary time in terms of allowing plants to adapt to fluctuations in light and carbon availability and water availability.”
The U of T research was done using mouse-ear cress, a relative of mustard, cabbage and radish plants. The work was supported by the university, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom.
