Natural Genetic Variation in Stomatal Response Can Help to Increase Acclimation of Plants to Dried Environments

Global warming becoming an alarming issue in the current century which caused increase in the area of barren lands. Arid and semi-arid regions are characterized with shortage of water in both under- and above-ground environments. Since stomata pores in the epidermis of leaves have a vital role to promote balance between water loss for cooling and absorbing minerals and preventing of wilting because of excessive water loss. Therefore, fine tune-functioning stomata on the leaf can help the plants to cope with the decreased water contents in both under- and above-ground environments. Vapor pressure difference (VPD) between stomatal cavity and surrounding environment determine the water status of the leaf. In the short-term, stomata respond in a regular way to VPD. However, when plants are grown at low VPDs the behavior of the stomata in response to drought stress changes and the stomata are incapable of suitable response to closing stimuli (stomatal malfunctioning). Finding the reasons for occurrence of stomatal malfunctioning can help us to improve plant acclimation to dried environments. To reach this goal exploring genetic variation in stomatal response between naturally occurring populations is the first step to figure out the mechanism controlling stomatal movements in different environments.