The effect of a cold night on photosynthesis in herbaceous chilling-sensitive crops, like tomato, has been extensively studied and is well characterized. This investigation examined the behaviour of the sub-tropical fruit tree, mango, to enable comparison with these well-studied systems. Unlike tomato, chilling between 5 degrees C and 7 degrees C overnight produced no significant inhibition of ...

Microscopic pores present in the epidermis of plant aerial organs, called stomata, allow gas exchanges between the inner photosynthetic tissue and the atmosphere. Regulation of stomatal aperture, preventing excess transpirational vapor loss, relies on turgor changes of two highly differentiated epidermal cells surrounding the pore, the guard cells. Increased guard cell turgor due to increased s...

Stomatal closure during water stress is a major plant mechanism for reducing the loss of water through leaves. The opening and closure of stomata are mediated by endomembrane trafficking. The role of the vacuolar trafficking pathway, that involves v-SNAREs of the AtVAMP71 family (formerly called AtVAMP7C) in stomatal movements, was analysed. Expression of AtVAMP711-14 genes was manipulated in A...

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPases) exist in plants, but their role in plant signaling processes is unknown. One of the most important signaling networks in plants concerns the regulation of stomatal aperture, by which closure of stomatal pores restricts water loss in dry conditions, a process essential for plant survival. Closure is achieved by reduction in guard cell volume as a consequen...

Transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants expressing a fragment of the Sl SDH2-2 gene encoding the iron sulfur subunit of the succinate dehydrogenase protein complex in the antisense orientation under the control of the 35S promoter exhibit an enhanced rate of photosynthesis. The rate of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle was reduced in these transformants, and there were changes in the l...

H(2)O(2) serves an important stress signaling function and promotes stomatal closure, whereas ascorbic acid (Asc) is the major antioxidant that scavenges H(2)O(2). Dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) catalyzes the reduction of dehydroascorbate (oxidized ascorbate) to Asc and thus contributes to the regulation of the Asc redox state. In this study, we observed that the level of H(2)O(2) and the As...

The process of photosynthesis is facilitated in a plant by pores in its surface called stomata. When a particular stoma is open, CO2 is absorbed through its aperture, but H2O is also lost due to evaporation. Thus a plant will seek a stomatal aperture that balances its need for CO2 with its aversion to H2O loss. In order to visualize a particular leaf’s stomatal aperture distribution and how it ...

Stomata are the main gateways for water and air transport between leaves and the environment. Inward-rectifying potassium channels regulate photo-induced stomatal opening. Rice contains three inward rectifying shaker-like potassium channel proteins, OsKAT1, OsKAT2, and OsKAT3. Among these, only OsKAT2 is specifically expressed in guard cells. Here, we investigated the functions of OsKAT2 in sto...

WRKY transcription factors (TFs) have been mainly associated with plant defense, but recent studies have suggested additional roles in the regulation of other physiological processes. Here, we explored the possible contribution of two related group III WRKY TFs, WRKY70 and WRKY54, to osmotic stress tolerance. These TFs are positive regulators of plant defense, and co-operate as negative regulat...

BACKGROUND Molecular clocks drive oscillations in leaf photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and other cell and leaf-level processes over ~24 h under controlled laboratory conditions. The influence of such circadian regulation over whole-canopy fluxes remains uncertain; diurnal CO2 and H2O vapor flux dynamics in the field are currently interpreted as resulting almost exclusively from direct phy...