TITLE:
CO2 and Chamber Effects on Epidermal Development in Field-Grown Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)
AUTHORS:
D. C. Gitz III, J. T. Baker, H. Echevarria-Laza, P. Payton, J. R. Mahan, R. J. Lascano
KEYWORDS:
Peanut, Stoma, Stomatal Density, Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.8 No.3,
February
6,
2017
ABSTRACT: Peanut,
(Arachis hypogaea L.) cvar. C76-16, was grown either in
the field, or in open gas exchange chambers under elevated or ambient CO2 concentrations. Stomatal density and other selected epidermal parameters
associated with leaf development and gas exchange
were measured on recently fully expanded canopy leaves. It was
hypothesized that exclusion of solar UV by chambers would affect stomatal
density, but no clear statistically significant chamber effect on stomatal
density was found. However, elevated [CO2] did lead to a reduction
in both adaxial and abaxial stomatal developmental initiation and in stomatal
density. Since each stomate was bounded by companion cells resulting from
developmental events, non-random stomatal spacing as the “one cell spacing rule”
appears to result from ontogeny rather than a long hypothesized chemical signal
inhibiting adjacent meristemoid differentiation into guard cells. A method of
visualizing epidermal patterns is also described.