{"id":1774,"date":"2018-11-13T17:29:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T09:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/?p=1774"},"modified":"2018-11-13T17:29:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T09:29:52","slug":"university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Illinois study identifies key drivers of corn photosynthesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>We may not be able to see them, but plant leaves are riddled with tiny pores that open to bring in carbon dioxide, the gas converted into sugars through the process of photosynthesis. The pores, known as stomata, are dynamic, opening and closing in response to internal and external cues.\n<\/div>\n<div>\u201cI always give the example of standing in a field of corn. When a cloud goes over, the light changes and the temperature changes. Stomata respond to those changes on a second-by-second basis,\u201d says Tony Studer, assistant professor in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois and author of a new study in\u00a0<em>Plant Physiology<\/em>\u00a0that characterizes corn stomata in a new way. \u201cA lot of the work in the study is understanding the signaling pathway of those stomata and how they respond to different environments.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<div>The work is important, in part, because it advances scientists\u2019 understanding of what\u2019s going on in corn leaves. Most previous knowledge of stomatal signaling comes from the lab rat of the plant world,\u00a0<em>Arabidopsis thaliana<\/em>, a small flowering plant in the mustard family that differs from corn and other crops in a couple of big ways.\n<\/div>\n<div>A crucial difference is the way both plants handle carbon dioxide. Corn concentrates carbon dioxide inside the leaf, allowing it to keep its stomata closed more of the time. Since water vapor escapes from stomata at the same time carbon dioxide enters the leaf, keeping stomata closed reduces water loss from the plant.\n<\/div>\n<div>\u201cPrevious research with Arabidopsis is valuable \u2013 it provides a launch pad for our work \u2013 but directly studying corn is going to be more applicable to the industry because there are fundamental differences; even the shape and pattern of the stomata are different,\u201d Studer says.\n<\/div>\n<div>Studer and his colleagues found that corn has multiple copies of the gene for an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase. They demonstrated that one copy,\u00a0<em>ca<\/em>1, is involved in kicking off photosynthesis in corn, and another,\u00a0<em>ca<\/em>2, signals stomata to close. Understanding the roles of these variants and others could one day help breeders improve corn in the future by making specific changes.\n<\/div>\n<div>Because stomata are the gatekeepers for both carbon dioxide uptake and water loss, the tiny structures will be crucially important in responding to a climate with more carbon dioxide and less predictable rainfall. Although corn stomata are currently effective at conserving water, the new study identifies ways they could be improved.\n<\/div>\n<div>The researchers compared the performance of corn plants with and without\u00a0<em>ca<\/em>1 or\u00a0<em>ca<\/em>2 under well-watered and drought conditions. Without the genes regulating stomatal closure and the beginning stages of photosynthesis, the experimental plants did not perform well. But they didn\u2019t do as badly as one might expect. Studer thinks additional versions of the ca gene filled in the gaps.\n<\/div>\n<div>\u201cEven though there isn\u2019t as much carbonic anhydrase in the mutant plants, even a little might be enough because it is the fastest enzyme on the planet,\u201d he says.\n<\/div>\n<div>Precise measurements in this study also revealed some basics about just how much water corn needs for normal growth. \u201cOur research shows that corn isn\u2019t water-use efficient under well-watered conditions. If it has water, it uses it, but to no gain to the plant. The plant doesn\u2019t get bigger or produce more biomass,\u201d Studer says. \u201cInstead, our work shows it should be possible to breed corn to be more water-use efficient by 10 to 20 percent without impacting yield. Then farmers could have water tucked away in the soil for when it\u2019s needed during late-season drought, affecting pollination, grain-fill, and yield.\u201d<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"pcfeed bgf8\">\n<div class=\"toolbtns tl\">\n<h4 class=\"p-source c-999 cb fr pt5\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Source<\/strong>:\u00a0<a class=\"c-orange\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/news.agropages.com\/Media\/MediaIndex-1331.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">University of Illinois<\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pcfeed-tit pl20 cb\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We may not be able to see them, but plant leaves are riddled with tiny pores that open to bring in carbon dioxide, the gas converted into sugars through the process of photosynthesis. The pores, known as stomata, are dynamic, opening and closing in response to internal and external cues. \u201cI always give the example&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">University of Illinois study identifies key drivers of corn photosynthesis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>University of Illinois study identifies key drivers of corn photosynthesis - agrinoon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"University of Illinois study identifies key drivers of corn photosynthesis - agrinoon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We may not be able to see them, but plant leaves are riddled with tiny pores that open to bring in carbon dioxide, the gas converted into sugars through the process of photosynthesis. 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The pores, known as stomata, are dynamic, opening and closing in response to internal and external cues. \u201cI always give the example&hellip; Continue reading University of Illinois study identifies key drivers of corn photosynthesis","og_url":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/","og_site_name":"agrinoon","article_published_time":"2018-11-13T09:29:52+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/","url":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/","name":"University of Illinois study identifies key drivers of corn photosynthesis - agrinoon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-11-13T09:29:52+00:00","dateModified":"2018-11-13T09:29:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/535254a24a4e1135afec5bcc244a5a8c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/11\/13\/university-illinois-study-identifies-key-drivers-corn-photosynthesis\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"University of Illinois study identifies key drivers of corn photosynthesis"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/","name":"agrinoon","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/535254a24a4e1135afec5bcc244a5a8c","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/727d38bbce271274ba21a10196f68d0e97dc7f36482cf2ddd1a056ba4ac20386?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/727d38bbce271274ba21a10196f68d0e97dc7f36482cf2ddd1a056ba4ac20386?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/s691948366.onlinehome.us\/demo\/agrinoon"],"url":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}