How the environment affects stomatal development

It is well known that the stomata helps the plant to interact with the environment by regulation the flow of gases and water through valve like mechanisms. Although many genes have been shown to play a role in the stomatal cell linage, many of these genes themselves are under the influence of environmental stimuli. Additionally many of the plant hormones are also thought to be impacted by environmental factors.

The environment can lead to a long range control of genes (eg control of flowering time by light period). It is thought that many of the genes responsible for stomatal control are themselves under go similar control. A mutation of the SDD1 gene results in a plant that has an increase in the density of stomata at ambient temperatures; this suggests that the gene may not be able to read environmental cues correctly.

A conclusion of stomatal development

The development of stomata involve a developmental cell linage. This involves the production of meristemoid by asymmetrical division. These can divide to produce daughter cells that act as reservoir cells or go on to produce guard cells. The production of stomata involves many genes that may act to create, pattern and locate stomata at early stages of development or later on to stop development and play a role in morphogenesis and the cell cycle. In addition to genes it is thought that the environment also has a key role to play in stomata development. Many of the genes that are involved in stomatal development are yet to be identified and much is still unknown about he relationship between assymetric division and cell fate in plants it is helped that future research will lead to a better understanding of stomatal development in plants.