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Stomata Opening

The document discusses the structure and mechanism of opening and closing of stomata. It describes the structure of stomata including guard cells and subsidiary cells. It then explains the mechanism of opening and closing which involves changes in turgor pressure of guard cells due to movement of water and ions in and out of the guard cells under the influence of light. It discusses various theories proposed to explain this mechanism including starch-sugar, potassium transport, pH and proton-potassium pump theories.

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577 views10 pages

Stomata Opening

The document discusses the structure and mechanism of opening and closing of stomata. It describes the structure of stomata including guard cells and subsidiary cells. It then explains the mechanism of opening and closing which involves changes in turgor pressure of guard cells due to movement of water and ions in and out of the guard cells under the influence of light. It discusses various theories proposed to explain this mechanism including starch-sugar, potassium transport, pH and proton-potassium pump theories.

Uploaded by

jyothi sai sri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Structure of Stoma and Mechanism of Stomatal

Opening and Closing


• Structure of Stoma

• A stoma is a minute pore on the epidermis of aerial parts of plants


through which exchange of gases and transpiration takes place.
• Each stoma is surrounded by a pair of kidney shaped guard cells.
Each guard cell is a modified epidermal cell showing a prominent
nucleus, cytoplasm and plastids. The wall of the guard cell is
differentially thickened. The inner wall of each guard cell facing the
stoma is concave and is thick and rigid. The outer wall is convex
and is thin and elastic.
•
• The guard cells are surrounded by a variable number of epidermal
cells called subsidiary cells.
• Mechanism of Stomatal Opening and Closing

Opening and closing of stomata takes place due to changes in


turgor of guard cells. Generally stomata are open during the day
and close at night.

• The turgor changes in the guard cells are due to entry and
exit of water into and out of the guard cells. During the day,
water from subsidiary cells enters the guard cells making the
guard cells fully turgid. As a result, the thin elastic convex outer
walls are bulged out causing the thick and rigid concave inner
walls to curve away from each other causing the stoma to open.
•During night time, water from guard cells enters the
subsidiary cells and as a result, the guard cells become flaccid
due to decrease in turgor pressure. This causes the inner
concave walls to straighten up and the stoma closes.

•The actual mechanism responsible for entry and exit of water


to and from the guard cells has been explained by several
theories.
• The most important theories are:

• i. The starch-sugar interconversion theory of Steward


• ii. Active K+ transport of Raschke
• iii. pH theory of Scarth
• iv. Proton-potassium pump theory of Levitt.
• i. The Starch - Sugar interconversion Theory
•
•Steward (1964) holds that during the day the
enzyme phosphorylase converts starch to sugar, thus
increasing osmotic potential of guard cells causing entry of
water. The reverse reaction occurs at night bringing about
closure.
• Phosphorylase (day)
• Starch (stoma opens) Sugar -> night -> (stoma closes)
• ii. Proton - Potassium Pump Hypothesis

• Levit in 1974 combined the points in Scarth's and Steward's


hypothesis and gave a modified version of the mechanism of
stomatal movement which was called the proton - potassium pump
hypothesis.

• According to this hypothesis K+ ions are transported into the


guard cells in the presence of light. The sequence of events taking
place are
• i. Under the influence of light, protons formed by dissociation of malic acid
move from cytoplasm in to the chloroplasts of guard cells.

• ii. To counter the exit of protons, K+ ions enter the guard cells from the
surrounding mesophyll cells.

• iii. K+ ions react with the malate ions present in the guard cells to form
potassium malate.

• iv. Potassium malate causes increase in the osmotic potential of guard cells
causing entry of water into the guard cells as a result of which the stoma opens.

• v. At night the dissociation of potassium malate takes place and K+ ions exit
out of guard cells causing loss of water from guard cells and so the stoma closes
•Noggle and Fritz (1976) supported this theory and gave a scheme for
opening of stomata.
Light, Starch, Production of Malic acid, Dissociation into H+ and Malate
• Exit of H+ and entry of K+ ions
• Formation of Potassium malate
• Increase of OP of guard cells
• Entry of water into guard cells
• Increase in turgor of guard cells
• Stoma opens

• This theory is the widely accepted one as Levitt was able to demonstrate
rise in K+ ion level during the day and the formation of organic acids like
malic acid with the unused CO2 present in the guard cells.

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