Events

“Rising with the Flow: Enhancing plant resilience by understanding the interplay between vascular structures, aquaporins and water use in cereal crops”

Date: 04 may 2023

Time: 12:00-13:00

Location: Kruyt building, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH; room Z.409

Host: Kaisa Kajala (UU)

Participation via Teams:

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 312 413 703 510
Passcode: mbEzRR

Abstract:

A major obstacle for the future of agriculture and global food security is the supply and use of water. As we enter a period of increasing climate uncertainty, development of crops that are more efficient in their use of water is central to the future of global food security. To create climate-smart crops, we must understand water use efficiency (WUE), which is the amount of biomass a plant produces per unit of water consumed. Previous efforts to improve WUE have focused on the function of stomata, typically estimated from gas exchange (CO2 and water vapor) at a leaf or canopy level. However, we currently have limited knowledge about the contribution of water transport through xylem and aquaporins to WUE. In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to understand the role of aquaporins and vascular arrangement/patterning in relation to WUE. Our research aims to identify how differences in xylem arrangements and aquaporin expression between roots, stems, and leaves within and across species impact plant WUE and resilience to drought. Additionally, I will talk about our recent discovery that grafting can be performed in monocots, allowing us to create new plant combinations without genetic modification. By grafting the roots of water-efficient accessions onto the shoots of high-yielding varieties, we can compare the roles of roots and shoots in overall water use strategies.