Stanford Scientists Reveal How Grass Developed a Better Way to Breathe

Stomata – Holes in Leaves of Plant – Take in CO2, Give Out Oxygen

When we recall our first lesson in photosynthesis we think of the stomata, the holesin the leaves of plants which tend to take in carbon dioxide giving out oxygen together with water vapour. During the 400 million years from the time the plants inhabited the land, these holes seemed to stay unchanged but for one main exception namely grasses.

The plants that tend to make up around 60% of the calories which people consume all over the world is said to have a modified stoma which experts are of the belief that it makes them capable of withstanding drought or even high temperature.

An increased productivity of grass stomata has now been confirmed by Stanford University scientists who have gained some knowledge on how they tend to grow. Their discoveries, conveyed in the issue of Science of March 17 could be beneficial in cultivating crops that would flourish in a changing climate.

Professor of biology and senior author of the paper, Dominique Bergmann, stated that eventually they have to feed people and the climate is changing, regardless of the cause, they still tend to depend on plants in order to survive irrespective of the climate they may have.Grasses that comprise of corn, rice and wheat tend to develop various stomata that could have been helpful in spreading at the time of prehistoric era of improved global dryness.

Food & Agriculture Taken for Granted

Stomata tends to have two supposed `guard cells’ having a hole in the centre which opens and closes based on how the plant requires to steady its gas exchange. Should the plant require more carbon dioxide or needs to cool with the release of water vapour, the stomata tends to open and if it needs to conserve water they then are inclined to remain closed.

The unusual structure of the grasses improved on recruiting two extra cells on each side of the guard cells, enables little additional spring with the opening of the stomaalso tends to respond much more quickly and sensitively to changes in light, temperature or humidity which occurs in the course of the day. Scientists expect that by being aware on how grass developed this system, they would be capable of creating or selecting edible plant which could endure dry as well as hot environments that would probably be more predominant with the changes in climate.

According to Michael Raissig, a postdoctoral research in the Bergmann lab and lead author of the paper commented that they take food and agriculture for granted and it is not something the `first world’ had to deal with but there were still large areas of the world that suffer from famine and this would be on the rise.

Unusual Stomata of Grasses – Extra Efficient `Breathers’

Moreover the human population would be exploding in the next 20 to 30 years, most of which would be in the developing world which is also where the changes in climate would be having the major effect.

As per the scientists, the unusual stomata of the grasses tend to make the plants extra efficient `breathers’. The researchers, however urged by curiosity together with a desire for developmental biology, planned to test that theory. They located a mutant of wheat relative Brachypodium distachyon which had two celled stomata. In association with the Berry lab at the Carnegie Institution for Science, the team then compared the stomata from the normal four celled stomata to the mutant.

They not only confirmed that the four-celled type seems to open wider and faster but identified which gene had created the four –celled stomata, though it was not the gene they were expecting. Raissig stated that since it was a grass specific cell type they were of the belief that it would be a grass specific factor also. Rather than depending on a totally new mechanism, the recruitment of the additional cells appears to be organised by a well-studied factor known to switch other genes on and off.

Wheat Brachypodium

That factor in other plants seems to be present in guard cells where it is involved in their progress. The team discovered that in grasses the factor migrated out of guard cells and directly into two surrounding cells, recruiting them in the formation of the four-celled stomata.

From the evolutionary period, humans have produced and propagated plants which had produced the types of food they desire and which could survive the extreme climate. Dominique Bergmann, also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator commented that they were not consciously breeding for stomata though they had been unconsciously selecting them.

He further added that they wanted something which is more drought resistant or something which could work better in higher temperature, or something which is just capable of taking in carbon better and often what they tend to actually do is select for numerous properties of stomata.

In the research led by Bergmann, the researchers utilised a relative of wheat Brachypodium in demonstrating that all grass stomata having four-cell configuration inclusive of two subsidiary cells were more responsive to changed environmental condition, having a wider range of holes for opening and closing of pores and it was this sensitivity which probably improved the performance of the plant especially in high temperatures or famine conditions.

Gene – BdMUTE

Moreover, the team comprising of lead author Michael Raissig together with the others, utilised sophisticated research techniques in identifying specific gene which enabled Brachypodium to form the imaginative subsidiary cells. The gene known as BdMUTE, encodes a protein which is said to be a `master regulator’ of cell behaviour by turning on and off the other genes which tend to give the cells their exceptional properties.

Deprived of the master regulator, Brachypodium stomata looks like the primitive two-celled stomata which is located in other plants. According to the scientists, due to the flexibility together with the productivity of grass, it seems to make the understanding of this plant family dangerous for the survival of humans.

Irrespective of genetic modification or selective breeding, scientists someday would be capable of using these discoveries in producing the other plants with four-celled stomata. Besides, this could also be one of the several changes, to chloroplasts or enzymes, for instance which would be helpful for plants photosynthesize much more in an efficient manner in feeding an ever growing population.

The research had been financed by Swiss National Science Foundation, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation together with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.