Two highly specialized cells, the guard cells that surround the stomatal pore, are able to integrate environmental and endogenous signals in order to control the stomatal aperture and thereby the gas exchange. The uptake of CO2 is associated with a loss of water by leaves. Control of the size of the stomatal aperture optimizes the efficiency of water use through dynamic changes in the turgor of...

During adaptation of plants to water stress/drought, the tiny pores on the leaf surface, called “stomata,” play a very important role. Stomatal movements can modulate the entry/exit of not only CO2/water (Lawson and Blatt, 2014) but also microbial pathogens (Agurla et al., 2014; Arnaud and Hwang, 2015). The stomatal opening/closure is brought out by changes in the turgor of guard cells. The abi...

While increasing temperatures and altered soil moisture arising from climate change in the next 50 years are projected to decrease yield of food crops, elevated CO2 concentration ([CO2]) is predicted to enhance yield and offset these detrimental factors. However, C4 photosynthesis is usually saturated at current [CO2] and theoretically should not be stimulated under elevated [CO2]. Nevertheless...

Stomatal opening and closure depends on changes in turgor pressure acting within guard cells to alter cell shape [1]. The extent of these shape changes is limited by the mechanical properties of the cells, which will be largely dependent on the structure of the cell walls. Although it has long been observed that guard cells are anisotropic due to differential thickening and the orientation of c...

Plants grown under elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) experience physiological changes that influence their suitability as food for insects. To determine the effects of living on soybean (Glycine max Linnaeus) grown under elevated CO2, population growth of the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura) was determined at the SoyFACE research site at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinoi...

Dynamic regulation of stomatal aperture is essential for plants to optimize water use and CO2 uptake. Stomatal opening or closure is accompanied by the modulation of guard cell turgor. Among the events leading to stomatal closure by plant hormones or microbial elicitors, three signaling components stand out as the major converging points. These are reactive oxygen species (ROS), cytosolic free ...

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is an important elaboration of photosynthetic carbon fixation that allows chloroplast-containing cells to fix CO2 initially at night using phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in the cytosol. This leads to the formation of C4 organic acids (usually malate), which are stored in the vacuole. Subsequent daytime decarboxylation of these organic acids behind clos...