Stomata — a tiny opening or pore — found on the under-surface of plants enable plants to take in carbon dioxide and let out oxygen and water vapor, or in other words, to breathe. These “mini mouths” have enabled trees to grow tall and helped plants inhabit and transform the Earth. Now, thanks to advances in molecular studies, scientists are gaining greater insights into how stomata came to be and how they have evolved, which has great impact on how we think about future plant life.
A recently published study in Science, "How plants learned to breathe,” points to a more refined stomata found in grasses, which has helped them rule dry landscapes across the globe. This new information can help scientists and farmers alike in nurturing crops that can thrive in a changing climate, particularly in drought years.
Two Moore Foundation grantees took part in the newly published study: lead author Michael Raissig, fellow at the Life Sciences Research Foundation and post-doctoral scholar at Stanford University’s Bergmann Lab, and his fellowship mentor, Dominique Bergmann, professor of biology at Stanford University and head of the lab. Dr. Bergmann, one of the nation’s most outstanding plant scientists, is also supported by the foundation in partnership with Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Based on these findings, Dr. Raissig remarked: “We take our food and agriculture for granted. It’s not something the ‘first world’ has to deal with, but there are still large areas of the world that suffer from famine and this will increase. The human population is going to explode in the next 20 to 30 years and most of that is in the developing world. That’s also where climate change will have the biggest effect.”
Dr. Bergmann added: “We’re not consciously breeding for stomata but we’re unconsciously selecting for them. When we want something that’s more drought resistant, or something that can work better in higher temperatures, or something that is just able to take in carbon better, often what we are actually doing is selecting for various properties of stomata.”
Read more from Stanford News here.
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