Reduced stomatal density in wheat overexpressing EPIDERMAL PATTERNING FACTOR1 differentially affects red and blue light responses.

ABSTRACT: Stomatal pores govern the trade-off between CO2 assimilation and water loss, and optimizing their performance is critical for crop resilience, particularly under dynamic field environments. Here, we show that overexpression of Triticum aestivum EPIDERMAL PATTERNING FACTOR1 (TaEPF1) in bread wheat (T. aestivum) reduces leaf stomatal density (SD) in a leaf surface-specific manner, with a greater decline on the abaxial surface than on the adaxial surface. TaEPF1 overexpressors exhibited substantially lower stomatal conductance than wild-type (WT) control plants, which resulted in diffusional constraints that limited photosynthesis when measured under monochromatic red light. However, upon partial substitution of red light with blue light, EPIDERMAL PATTERNING FACTOR1 overexpressors displayed

SUBMITTER: Fan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12451101 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature