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CSB Deptl Seminar: Dr. Jeffrey Leung, Seed Biology, Department of Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, INRA, Versailles, France
October 30, 2015 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
CSB Departmental Seminar
Dr. Jeffrey Leung
Seed Biology
Department of Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin
INRA, Versailles, France
“The Plant’s Dilemma: Managing the Competing Priorities between Water Economy and a Positive Carbon Budget”
Friday, Oct 30, 2015 at 2:00 p.m.
Ramsay Wright Building, Room 432
Host: Prof. Eiji Nambara <eiji.nambara@utoronto.ca>
Abstract:
In the opening salvos of his engaging article, How Stomata Resolve the Dilemma of Opposing Priorities, K. Raschke (1976) wrote that “Land plants are in a dilemma throughout their lives: assimilation of CO2 from the atmosphere requires intensive gas exchange; the prevention of excessive water loss demands that gas exchange be kept low.” What seemed a rarefied musing of a plant academic nearly 40 years ago has since broadened into global environmental concerns. My work into how higher plants in an open field juggle this conflicting need for an abundance of both H2O and CO2 to drive photosynthesis has led me to identify the metabolite, acetylated 1, 3-diaminopropane, that seems to trigger a risk-taking behavior in C3 plants to assimilate CO2 despite the potential for tissue dehydration.
Citation:
Raschke, K. (1976) How stomata resolve the dilemma of opposing priorities. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. Biol. 273, 551-560.