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Reduced stomatal density in bread wheat leads to increased water-use efficiency.
- Source :
-
Journal of Experimental Botany . 9/15/2019, Vol. 70 Issue 18, p4737-4748. 12p. - Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Wheat is a staple crop, frequently cultivated in water-restricted environments. Improving crop water-use efficiency would be desirable if grain yield can be maintained. We investigated whether a decrease in wheat stomatal density via the manipulation of epidermal patterning factor (EPF) gene expression could improve water-use efficiency. Our results show that severe reductions in stomatal density in EPF-overexpressing wheat plants have a detrimental outcome on yields. However, wheat plants with a more moderate reduction in stomatal density (i.e. <50% reduction in stomatal density on leaves prior to tillering) had yields indistinguishable from controls, coupled with an increase in intrinsic water-use efficiency. Yields of these moderately reduced stomatal density plants were also comparable with those of control plants under conditions of drought and elevated CO2. Our data demonstrate that EPF-mediated control of wheat stomatal development follows that observed in other grasses, and we identify the potential of stomatal density as a tool for breeding wheat plants that are better able to withstand water-restricted environments without yield loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00220957
- Volume :
- 70
- Issue :
- 18
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Experimental Botany
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 138818864
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erz248