The importance of leaf traits for gas film retention
It has long been known that leaf gas films greatly enhance underwater photosynthesis of terrestrial plants during submergence. The higher photosynthesis under water is due to the enhanced exchange of carbon dioxide with the surrounding floodwater. The gas film forms on the superhydrophobic leaf cuticles of rice, but hydrophobicity is lost during the time course of submergence, and at present we do not know exactly why.
Christopher is investigating the importance of leaf morphological traits for gas film retention time with the ultimate goal of improving submergence tolerance of rice by breeding for functional leaf traits. We cannot reveal exactly which traits he is focusing on, but he is doing a tremendous job analyzing leaf cross-sections of a large number of genotypes. The work is tedious and we are currently trying to reduce some the manual work by employing AI in the data analysis; time will show if we are successful.
Christopher will visit IRRI as part of his thesis work in order to obtain enough genotypes to run his GWAS.
Christopher is watching a cross-section of a rice leaf. We hypothesize that the leaf morphology plays an important role in the gas film retention in addtion to the well-known hydrophobicity of the wax crystals forming the leaf cuticle.
Christopher is investigating the importance of leaf morphological traits for gas film retention time with the ultimate goal of improving submergence tolerance of rice by breeding for functional leaf traits. We cannot reveal exactly which traits he is focusing on, but he is doing a tremendous job analyzing leaf cross-sections of a large number of genotypes. The work is tedious and we are currently trying to reduce some the manual work by employing AI in the data analysis; time will show if we are successful.
Christopher will visit IRRI as part of his thesis work in order to obtain enough genotypes to run his GWAS.
Christopher is watching a cross-section of a rice leaf. We hypothesize that the leaf morphology plays an important role in the gas film retention in addtion to the well-known hydrophobicity of the wax crystals forming the leaf cuticle.