2023/07/01 by Hojae Yi, Charles T. Anderson · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Polysaccharides and Plant Cell Walls #Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance #Plant Molecular Biology Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/insilicoplants/diad017
openalex publication_date 2023/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract Stomata are dynamic pores on plant surfaces that regulate photosynthesis and are thus of critical importance for understanding and leveraging the carbon-capturing and food-producing capabilities of plants. However, our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of stomatal kinetics and the biomechanical properties of the cell walls of stomatal guard cells that enable their dynamic responses to environmental and intrinsic stimuli is limited. Here, we built multiscale models that simulate regions of the guard cell wall, representing cellulose fibrils and matrix polysaccharides as discrete, interacting units, and used these models to help explain how molecular changes in wall composition and underlying architecture alter guard wall biomechanics that gives rise to stomatal responses in mutants with altered wall synthesis and modification. These results point to strategies for engineering guard cell walls to enhance stomatal response times and efficiency.