Julie Gray is a professor, and the Director of Research and Innovation, in the School of Biosciences at the University of Sheffield. She is interested in understanding plant environmental signalling responses, particularly those that control the opening or closing of stomatal pores, or that determine how many stomata develop on the leaf surface. Her research group have identified and manipulated the expression of stomatal signalling genes to create crops with enhanced water use efficiency, drought and salinity tolerance.
Sunday session 1
Engineering Stomatal Development
Stomata underpin crop productivity by allowing carbon dioxide to enter leaves and water vapour to exit via transpiration. They open in the light for photosynthesis, and close in the dark or on dehydration. The identification of signalling peptides that regulate stomatal development in Arabidopsis has led to the manipulation of stomatal conductance in crop species; barley, wheat and rice plants have been produced with abnormally low stomatal densities. These modified crops have substantially lower levels of water loss and show enhanced drought tolerance. They require less water to grow, and yet maintain seed yields. For example, rice seedlings with approximately half the usual number of stomata, use only 60% of the normal amount of water, are better able to survive drought, and still yield well. Optimisation and adoption of this technology could enhance yields under stressful conditions, reduce agricultural water requirements, help to mitigate the impacts of climate change on food security, and reduce future GHG emissions.