Project description
How grasses build efficient stomata
Stomata are tiny pores on plant leaves that control gas exchange and water loss, making them essential for growth but also vulnerable points during drought and disease. Grasses possess a highly efficient four-cell stomatal structure that opens and closes faster than the simpler stomata of many other plants. This helps improve water-use efficiency and stress tolerance. Given that grasses include major food crops, understanding how these structures form is important for sustainable agriculture. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the POLAR2M project will investigate how key proteins guide the cell divisions that create grass stomata. The findings could help develop crops better adapted to climate stress.
Objective
Stomata are specialized epidermal structures enabling gas-exchanges, key innovation for terrestrial plants but also weak spots regarding abiotic and biotic stresses. In most dicotyledons, stomata consist of two kidney-shaped guard cells, whereas grasses form a unique four-cell complex with two subsidiary cells (SCs) allowing faster stomatal opening and closing, contributing to water-use efficiency and stress resilience. As grasses include major cultivated plants in Europe, understanding how these specialized structures are formed and regulated is of central importance. The wild-grass model Brachypodium distachyon has been instrumental in addressing these questions. Studies revealed that, unlike in Arabidopsis thaliana, grass four-cell stomata require two successive asymmetric cell divisions (ACDs): first a transverse giving rise to the guard mother cell and then a longitudinal generating the SCs. POLAR and PL1 proteins, have emerged as central regulators of stomatal forming ACDs by establishing the future division plane through their pre-division polarity. While both act redundantly in stomatal precursor divisions in A. thaliana, results from my host lab point to a subfunctionalization in B. Distachyon. PL1 controls the first transverse ACD, whereas POLAR regulates the second longitudinal ACD. Despite differences in function and polarity, the POLAR family shares common polarity turn-over after division and overall role in ACD probably relying on post-translational regulation and specific partner interactions. Building on my expertise in protein biochemistry and the host lab’s knowledge of grass biology, the POLAR2M project aims to elucidate how POLAR and PL1 coordinate cell polarity and each ACD during stomatal and leaf epidermis development in grasses. Beyond fundamental insights, POLAR2M will shed light on molecular processes directly relevant to sustainable agricultural production, a major challenge for global food security.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry
- natural sciences biological sciences cell biology cell polarity
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture industrial crops fodder
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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3012 Bern
Switzerland
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