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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 #336536
Title: CO2 and chamber effects on epidermal development in field grown peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Author
item Gitz, Dennis
item Baker, Jeffrey
item ECHEVARRIA-LAZA, HAYDEE - Texas Tech University
item Payton, Paxton
item Mahan, James
item Lascano, Robert

Submitted to: American Journal of Plant Sciences
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/3/2017
Publication Date: 2/6/2017
Citation: Gitz, D.C., Baker, J.T., Echevarria-Laza, H., Payton, P.R., Mahan, J.R., Lascano, R.J. 2017. CO2 and chamber effects on epidermal development in field grown peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.). American Journal of Plant Sciences. 8:349-362.

Interpretive Summary: Carbon dioxide is a "greenhouse gas" that has been implicated in climate change. Measurements show that carbon dioxide levels have been increasing over the past half century. We wanted to examine peanut response to increased carbon dioxide. We found that the numbers of tiny pores in peanut leaves are decresed with higher carbon dioxide. This suggests a mechanism though which peanuts will exhibit greater water use efficiency in the future, should carbon dioxide levels continue to rise.

Technical 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 density of expanded leaves. 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 long hypothesized chemical signal inhibiting adjacent meristemoid differentiation into guard cells. A method of visualizing epidermal patterns is described.