Plant Optimisation Flashcards
Why might water loss be useful to a plant?
Cooling
Transpiration
Describe stomatal structure in dicots and monocots
- Pore flanked by guard cells
Dicots - ‘sasuage shaped’ guard cells
Monocots
- dumbell shaped guard calls
- subsidary cells
What environmental cues may cause stomata to open/close
Light
Water availibility
Carbondioxide
How do stomata open?
Actication of P-type ATPase that pumps H+ out of the guard cell
Passive uptake of potassium ions due to hyperpolarisation by the ATPase
Uptake of chloride ions by H+Cl- symporter
Water moves into guard cells and they gain turgour
Malate ions also accumulate due to metabolism
How do stomata close?
Calcium ions activate a S-type anion channel that mediates Cl- efflux
This membrane depolarisation leads to K= efflux
Calcium signalling also reduces activity of the P-type ATPase
How is stomatal opening regulated by light?
Blue light receptor: phototropins
Increase in blue light activates the H+ pump:
due to phosphoylation of the C-terminus of the pump a regulatory protein binds to it and maintains its action
How does ABA contibute to stomatal opening/closure?
ABA accumulates in times of drought and inhibits stomatal opening while promoting stomatal closure
ABA binds to a receptor: PYR1
- PYR1 activates a MAP kinease protein which releases internal calcium stores from the vacuole
- Kinease also stimulates Cl- channals opensing and so chloride efflux
How does ABA reach guard cells?
ABA is released from plastids in the roots in response to drought and enters the transpiration stream to be targetted at guard cell complexes
Example of stomatal hjacking?
The pathogen Fusicoccum
Activates the H+ ATPase causes stomata to open in unfavourable conditions such as in drought
Response: leaves wilting
What factors may influence stomatal development?
High light and sufficent water in young years would promote more stomatal development
- high stomatal density and larger stomata
Low CO2 in early years leads to less stomata
What limits photosynthesis at high light intensities?
Carbon dioxide concentration
What is the light compensation point?
The light intensity at which there is 0 net CO2 uptake
How are photosytems organised within chloroplasts
Photosystems are not distributed evenly within a cell
Photosystem I is usually found in non-appressed outer granal lamelle
Photosystem II is usually found in the inner, appressed granum
Why are PSII more likely to be found in apressed membranes?
Increases their efficentcy of light capture, as they are generally less efficent than PSI
What is the solution for photosystems being relativley seperated from each other?
Mobile quinones transport electrons between photosystems