Study mesophyll conductance dynamic response to drought and elevated temperature.

Under saturated light conditions, photosynthesis is limited by how quickly CO2 diffuses from the atmosphere to the chloroplast's stroma inside the mesophyll cells (i.e., diffusion limitation constraining by the stomata and mesophyll) and by the capacity of Rubisco to fix CO2 in the chloroplast stroma. Mesophyll conductance (gm) plays a major role in constraining photosynthetic productivity. Molecular and physiological mechanisms and metabolic factors controlling gm remain largely unknown, particularly under dynamic environmental changes. The proportion in which stomata and mesophyll conductance limit photosynthesis changes once plants are subjected to drought or changes in leaf temperature. We aim to understand if leaf anatomy changes rapidly under temperature and drought stress. And if chloroplasts can relocate within the cell to maximize light absorption and change the profile position to increase or decrease the effective surface area for diffusion and gm…We also aim to test the hypothesis that in addition to sustaining the CO2 and HCO-3 equilibration, CA may be involved in sensing environmental factors, such as drought and temperature.