A hand-held porometer for high-throughput phenotyping of plant-atmosphere gas exchange in grasses
Land plants must balance water vapour loss through leaves with efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake for photosynthesis. Specialised “breathing pores” on leaves called stomata can open and close to minimise water loss and maximise CO2 uptake. Thus, plants with efficient and fast stomatal pores are likely more resilient to the upcoming, climate-change-induced drought and heat periods.
The ”Stomatal Biology” group at the Institute for Plant Sciences is interested in how different stomatal morphologies affect gas exchange and how we can bioengineer stomatal form to prepare plants for the upcoming climatic challenges. We primarily work with grasses, which form morphologically innovative stomata with very rapid opening and closing dynamics. The rapid stomata of grasses contribute to the high water-use efficiency of grasses and their evolutionary success. Nowadays, grasses dominate many natural and agricultural ecosystems and our most important food crops like maize, rice and wheat are all grasses.
Gas exchange measurements are either very time-consuming and laborious or rather inaccurate. With the help of the UniBern Forschungsstiftung, we were able to acquire the hand-help porometer LI-600N, which allows for rapid and highly accurate measurements of steady-state gas exchange, while simultaneously assessing photosynthetic capacity. Therefore, the LI-600N will enable us to perform high-throughput screens of large populations of different grasses or grass genotypes. This will identify species that show a high photosynthetic efficiency, which is relevant for yield, yet low stomatal conductance, which is relevant for water-stress resilience.
Prof. Dr. Michael T. Raissig
Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)
