Helsinki: Novel gene could be basis of drought-tolerant plants

Research lead

Research groups at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences of the University of Helsinki and the University of California in San Diego have discovered a gene that is centrally involved in the regulation of carbon dioxide uptake for photosynthesis and water evaporation in plants. They say the discovery could aid the development of drought-tolerant crops.

The (unnamed) gene is involved in the opening and closing of stomata, the tiny pores on the plant leaf surface through which the leaves absorb carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and release moisture into the air.

Jaakko Kangasjärvi and his research group from the University of Helsinki identified the gene using a mutant strain of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana that does not react by closing its stomata as a response to high ozone or carbon dioxide concentration in the air, as does a healthy plant. Their collaborators at the University of California demonstrated with electrophysiological measurements that the gene identified encodes an anion channel involved in the regulation of stomata.

The gene discovered is of central importance because unlike other ion channels that are known to be involved in specific aspects of stomata activity, the newly discovered anion channel is involved in the regulation of all main stomata activity.