French scientists, together with representatives of the Department of Genetics and Physiology of Forest Trees from the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, studied the stomata of two poplar species. The stoma is a small opening that serves primarily to exchange gases and water between the plant and its enviroment. It is usually made up of two guard cells that regulate how the stoma opens or closes for the surrounding environment. It could resemble human nostrils. Higher plants have these stomata mostly on both sides of the leaves.
In the research centre in Champenoux, near the French city of Nancy, a very modern fully automated experimental glasshouse with an automatic belt is placed. The plants under investigation were placed on the belt and then passed through a series of scanners and instruments. The glasshouse can provide conditions that are desirable for the experiment, such as natural light, temperature and humidity. In this glasshouse, the woody cuttings of pre-selected genotypes (individuals with specific genetic information inherited from their parents) of the black poplar and Canadian poplar were planted. After two months, some of the woody cuttings were deliberately stressed by drought. The study aims at how climate change will affect plants in the future. The attention is paid primarily on the response of plants to drought stress, whether this stress has something to do with the individual's genetics, and finally how drought affects the physiological processes in plants.
A very complex analysis confirmed that the change of water regime in poplars would affect several biochemical processes that take place in these species. Furthermore, it confirmed that the response to drought stress varied in different genotypes. This results can have a variety of applications in practice. One of them is the effort to give priority to more resistant individuals for reforestation. The forests of the future may be more drought-resistant and have higher resilience to climate change.
Durand, M., Hummel, I., Cohen, D., Aubry, N., Buré, C., Brendel, O., & Tomášková, I. (2019). Element content and expression of genes of interest in guard cells are connected to spatiotemporal variations in stomatal conductance, (April), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.13644
doc. Ing. Ivana Tomášková, PhD.
Ivana Tomášková has been working at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology for nine years. She became involved as a member of the Scientific Council and in her previous term of office as a member of the FLD Academic Senate. She teaches several subjects at the faculty, including "Plant Anatomy and Physiology". She devotes herself hard to research, especially in the field of plant anatomy and physiology. However, her outputs are often created by combining several areas of research, such as genetics, breeding or even forest protection.
Prepared by Andrea Moravcová