Brown, Jordan C (2018) Photoreceptor regulation of plant responses to light and carbon dioxide. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.
Abstract
The scarcity of fresh water resources has highlighted concerns about the high percentage used for agricultural purposes. The strain on freshwater could be alleviated by improving crop water use as this is the largest consuming factor. Stomata are microscopic pores on the leaf epidermis which plants use to regulate their gas exchange. Importantly, stomata are required to balance CO2 uptake with water loss, with, 1-10 mmol CO2 taken up per mole of water lost. This is achieved through a combination of altering the aperture of the stomatal pores and regulating the number of stomata that develop on the leaf surface. These changes occur in response to environmental cues and hormone signals (Casson and Hetherington, 2010). An overall genetic pathway of light-controlled stomatal development has advanced the understanding of the regulatory light signaling mechanism. However, it remains unknown how light signaling interacts with other environmental signals, such as that of CO2, to impact intrinsic developmental pathways.
In this thesis I describe experiments that investigate, in vivo, the impact of photoreceptor signaling on CO2 signal response within the context of stomatal development and function. The final results chapter of this thesis discusses that phyB mutants have altered stomatal response to combined changes in light and CO2 concentrations. I was able to observe increased water use efficiency of phyB via control of stomatal number, size and aperture. Furthermore I was able to observe that phyB is important to sensing elevated CO2 in terms of stomatal aperture response. These results indicate a key role of phyB in light and CO2 signal integration to control stomatal development and response.
Metadata
Supervisors: | Casson, Stuart |
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Awarding institution: | University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Sheffield) |
Identification Number/EthosID: | uk.bl.ethos.755257 |
Depositing User: | Jordan C Brown |
Date Deposited: | 05 Oct 2018 15:40 |
Last Modified: | 25 Sep 2019 20:05 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:etheses.whiterose.ac.uk:21595 |
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