To speed the work, Xie took a machine-learning tool originally developed to help self-driving cars navigate complex environments and converted it into an application that could quickly identify, count and measure thousands of cells and cell features in each leaf sample. And you can’t discover the genetic basis for a trait with a really small experiment.”įrom here to maturity: There’s more to growing crops than planting seeds. “Or, if they get measured, it’s in really small experiments. “There are a lot of features of the leaf epidermis that normally don’t get measured because it takes too much time,” he said.

The slowness of this method means scientists are unable to analyze large datasets, Leakey said. “This is very challenging because the traditional methods for measuring these traits are very slow and laborious.”įor example, determining stomatal density previously involved manually counting the pores under a microscope. “We investigated the number, size and speed of closing movements of stomata in these closely related species,” Leakey said. To better understand this process in plants like corn, sorghum and grasses of the genus Setaria, the team analyzed how the stomata on their leaves influenced plants’ water-use efficiency. “If rainfall is low or the air is too hot and dry, there can be insufficient water to meet demand, leading to reduced photosynthesis, productivity and survival.” “The amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide exchanged between the leaf and atmosphere depends on the number of stomata, their size and how quickly they open or close in response to environmental signals,” Leakey said. But the stomata also allow moisture to escape in the form of water vapor. That carbon dioxide drives photosynthesis and contributes to plant growth. Plants “breathe in” carbon dioxide through tiny pores in their leaves called stomata. “And scientists are working to find ways to minimize water loss from plant leaves without decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide the leaves take in.”

“Drought stress limits agricultural production more than anything else,” Leakey said.

Leaf structure function