Intelligent Plants

Presented by Dr Josette Masle
Environmental Biology Group

Plant growth costs water. As carbon dioxide enters leaves through stomata, water vapour diffuses out. Although leaves tend to coordinate this trade off between carbon gain and water loss through stomata – often called transpiration efficiency- significant genetic variation. As water is scarce, unravelling the genetic and physiological controls of transpiration efficiency is critical.

Students will be presented with concepts, techniques and genetic material we are using to dissect the molecular and developmental mechanisms that coordinate CO2 fixation and water loss in leaves, and how these mechanisms are influenced by long distance signalling from roots.

The session will put emphasis on plants as highly integrated and finely tuned organisms, and mechanisms of cell-cell and organ-organ communication in the sensing of the environment, the differentiation of roots and leaves and their function.

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