Scientists have developed a method for remotely controlling a plant's stomata, the pores that allow leaves to regulate the amount of CO2 they absorb and the amount of water that's allowed to transpire.

Each stomatal pore is sandwiched by a pair of guard cells. When internal pressure in the guard cells drop, they slacken and close the pore. When the pressure increases, the guard cells pull away, widening the pore.

The signaling pathways inside guard cells are complex, making intervention difficult, but the authors of a new study -- published Friday in the journal Science Advances -- have developed a way to manipulate the stomata using light pulses.

To begin, researchers at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, in Germany, installed a light-sensitive protein switch in the guard cells of tobacco plants -- a technology from the field of optogenetics that has previously been used in animal cells.

For the switch, scientists used a light-sensitive protein from the algae species Guillardia theta.

When exposed to light pulses, the protein and its anion channel ACR1 shepherd chloride out of the guard cells, paving the way for an outflow of potassium.

This exodus causes the pressures inside the guard cells to declines and the pore to close within 15 minutes.

"The light pulse is like a remote control for the movement of the stomata," lead researcher Rainer Hedrich, a professor of biophysics at JMU, said in a press release.

According to Hedrich, the latest findings offer proof of the connection between anion channels and stomatal regulation.

In the future, botanists and crop scientists may be able to engineer plant varieties with more anion channels in their guard cells. This would allow them to more efficiently open and close their pores to protect themselves from heatwaves and prolonged droughts.

"Plant anion channels are activated during stress; this process is dependent on calcium," Hedrich said. "In a follow up optogenetics project, we want to use calcium-conducting channelrhodopsins to specifically allow calcium to flow into the guard cells through exposure to light and to understand the mechanism of anion channel activation in detail."

Hedrich suggests their new remote control can be used to conduct a variety of novel plant experiments.

"With it, we can gain new insights into how plants regulate their water consumption and how carbon dioxide fixation and stomatal movements are coupled," he said.

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