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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Wind Erosion and Water Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #221321
Title: Methods for creating stomatal impressions directly onto archivable slides

Author
item Gitz, Dennis
item Baker, Jeffrey

Submitted to: Agronomy Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/1/2008
Publication Date: 1/8/2009
Citation: Gitz, D.C., Baker, J.T. 2009. Methods for creating stomatal impressions directly onto archivable slides. Agronomy Journal. 101(1):232-236.

Interpretive Summary: Stoma, the microscopic pores in plants leaves, control water loss and carbon dioxide uptake for photosynthesis. It is thought that breeding for increased or decreased numbers of stoma could result in increased photosynthetic rates or decreased water use. This report describes ways that scientists can more easily detect these pores and perhaps begin selecting for numbers of stoma in breeding programs.

Technical Abstract: Stomatal density has been shown to be a primary determinant of crop yield, water use efficiency, and limitation to CO2 assimilation rate. Widely used methods of assessing stomatal density sample relatively small regions of the leaf, are labor intensive, or do not yield stable archivable samples for revisiting samples. We describe methods of producing such epidermal impressions that yield samples large enough to generate stomatal density maps across entire leaf surfaces.