Unravelling high CO2-induced changes in stomatal development

Project Information

HIGHCODE

Grant agreement ID: 101106048

DOI

10.3030/101106048

Project closed

EC signature date 15 March 2023

Start date 1 April 2023

End date 31 March 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 199 694,40

Coordinated by

HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HIGHCODE (Unravelling high CO2-induced changes in stomatal development)

Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2025-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Unlike animals, plants cannot move in response to changes in environmental conditions. Instead, they regulate their interaction with the outside world in order to optimize their fitness and survival. Plants regulate fundamental processes like gas exchange and regulation of inner temperature through pores located on the surface of the leaves, called stomata. They are similar to small mouths that open and close in response to different environmental stimuli. The HIGHCODE project aims to study how plants modify stomata number and disposition to adapt to different conditions, in a process called plasticity. In particular, the project goals are:
- Describing the different patterns stomata can have on the leaves surface in response to different environments.
- Understanding the main regulators of their environmental plasticity.
These results can help understanding how plants adapt to environment, and they can lead to improved agricultural and environmental applications useful to face challenges like climate change.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Leaf development has been studied in different developmental conditions, to assess how leaf cells behave and respond to usual or unusual growth conditions.
Those very same cells have been extracted and separated according to their localization in the leaf. When cells have different localization, it means they have different roles. Their behavior has been profiled so that different cells can be compared with each other, and their differences highlighted. In this way, putative regulators of developmental processes, such as stomatal development, have been identified. Their role is now better characterized in changing environmental conditions, to have a complete picture of the regulation on developmental plasticity.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

To understand how plants can modify their development to adapt to changing environmental conditions, different cells have been observed and profiled, and new regulators of leaf plasticity have been identified. These results could be used to find new solutions to current agricultural and environmental challenges.