Water use efficiency in cereal crops: stomatal, hydraulic, biochemical mechanisms, and translational strategies for improvement

PHOTOSYNTHESIS AND WATER STRESS: MOLECULAR MECHANISMS, PHOTOCHEMICAL REGULATION, AND INTEGRATIVE STRATEGIES OF PLANT DROUGHT TOLERANCE – A REVIEW

In this review, water deficit remains one of the major constraints on plant productivity under rising temperatures, increasing atmospheric aridity, and the growing frequency of extreme weather events. Photosynthesis responds to drought not simply as a consequence of reduced water availability, but as a systemic disturb...

Interaction between stomatal, mesophyll and chloroplast regulation for plant photosynthetic acclimation to drought

Drought triggers a series of physiological and biochemical changes at the stomatal, mesophyll and chloroplast levels, which are linked and integrated into a finely tuned regulatory network that determines plant photosynthetic acclimation and drought tolerance. In this regard, stomatal regulation acts as the primary con...

Hydraulic Activation of Stomata Induced by Hygroscopic Fertilizer Salts Alters Crop Carbon-Water Exchange: Field Evidence From Cereal Crops.

Hydraulic activation of stomata (HAS), driven by hygroscopic salt films on leaf surfaces, can create an additional pathway for water loss beyond conventional stomatal vapour diffusion, yet this process remains largely overlooked in studies of plant-atmosphere interactions. We conducted the first field-based assessment...

Drought‐Induced Anatomical Compensation Stabilizes Gas Exchange in Sorghum

Drought limits carbon gain in crops, yet the functional role of bulliform cells in regulating gas exchange and water‐use efficiency remains unclear. Here, we tested whether natural variation in bulliform size alters carbon assimilation rate and whole‐leaf water‐use efficiency in Sorghum bicolor . Two locally...

Engineering Rice Stomata for Climate Resilience: CRISPR Strategies to Optimize Water-Use Efficiency and Drought Tolerance

The meeting of stomata, trichomes and xylem: Are leaf and wood anatomy coordinated to control water loss and transport in olive?

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Photosynthetic tissues of terrestrial plants require a continuous water supply to avoid desiccation while allowing CO2 to diffuse to chloroplasts. This imposes a functional coordination between water-conducting tissues and stomatal regulation. What is the anatomical basis of this coordination? MET...