Tracy Lawson
University of Essex
Professor Tracy Lawson is a professor in the Plant Physiology, Director of Plant Phenotyping and Director of Essex Plant Innovation Centre (EPIC) at Essex, with over 30 years’ experience in photosynthesis research. Her research focuses on the stomatal control of atmospheric gas entry into the leaf, associated water loss and the mechanisms that regulate this process. Recent research has paid particular attention to stomatal kinetics and the impact of dynamic environments on both photosynthesis and stomatal behaviour. Tracy’s work also concentrates on phenotyping including chlorophyll fluorescence techniques (for quantifying light use and photosynthetic efficiency) and thermal imaging (for measuring stomatal responses and kinetics). Lawson’s lab developed the first imaging system for screening plant water-use-efficiency (McAusland et al., 2013).
Title of presentation
Red and blue light impacts on stomatal dynamics, photosynthesis and water use efficiency
Authors
Tracy Lawson, Mengjie Fan, Martin Battle, Silvere Vialet-Chabrand, Tanja Hofmann,
University of Essex, UK
Abstract
Stomatal responses to light follow two distinct pathways, the red and the blue light (BL) response. The red-light (RL) response is linked directly to mesophyll photosynthesis via an unknown signal, whilst the blue light response is specific to the guard cells. We have demonstrated that stomatal responses to blue light are not universal, and that significant species-specific differences exist in terms of both rapidity and magnitude. Several key crop species show increased stomatal conductance with BL with no increase in photosynthesis, with implications for water use efficiency. Optimisation of the blue light response could provide a mechanism to improve water use efficiency in crops, or resilience to climate change. Here we explore ways to manipulate the BL response in wheat to improve water use efficiency.
My Sessions
Red and blue light impacts on stomatal dynamics, photosynthesis and water use efficiency
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Presentation