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Reduced stomatal density in bread wheat leads to increased water-use efficiency

Wheat is a staple crop, frequently cultivated in water-restricted environments. Improving crop water-use efficiency would be desirable if grain yield can be maintained. We investigated whether a decrease in wheat stomatal density via the manipulation of epidermal patterning factor (EPF) gene express...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dunn, Jessica, Hunt, Lee, Afsharinafar, Mana, Meselmani, Moaed Al, Mitchell, Alice, Howells, Rhian, Wallington, Emma, Fleming, Andrew J, Gray, Julie E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6760291/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31172183
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erz248
Descripción
Sumario:Wheat is a staple crop, frequently cultivated in water-restricted environments. Improving crop water-use efficiency would be desirable if grain yield can be maintained. We investigated whether a decrease in wheat stomatal density via the manipulation of epidermal patterning factor (EPF) gene expression could improve water-use efficiency. Our results show that severe reductions in stomatal density in EPF-overexpressing wheat plants have a detrimental outcome on yields. However, wheat plants with a more moderate reduction in stomatal density (i.e. <50% reduction in stomatal density on leaves prior to tillering) had yields indistinguishable from controls, coupled with an increase in intrinsic water-use efficiency. Yields of these moderately reduced stomatal density plants were also comparable with those of control plants under conditions of drought and elevated CO(2). Our data demonstrate that EPF-mediated control of wheat stomatal development follows that observed in other grasses, and we identify the potential of stomatal density as a tool for breeding wheat plants that are better able to withstand water-restricted environments without yield loss.