| Affiliations: | Aggie Research Mentoring Program |
| Project Leader: | Nicole Havrilchak nhavrilchak@tamu.edu Ecology and Conservation Biology |
| Faculty Mentor: | Jason West, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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TBA |
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Team Size:
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3 |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Students will have opportunities to become familiar with plant anatomy, including histology (grass microscopy slide preparation), using microscopes, and ImageJ to measure certain leaf anatomical features. There is also potential for earning co-authorship/publications.
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Team Needs:
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Interest in plants, ecology, and/or plant physiology, experience using Excel, and strong attention to detail preferred. Preference for students with microscopy/wet lab experience. |
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Description:
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Warm season grasses have a specialized mode of photosynthesis (C4 photosynthesis) which allows them to be highly efficient under more stressful environmental conditions (high heat, low water, high light, limited resources). Certain leaf traits, such as leaf size for example, and other features of anatomy may allow certain species to have even more efficient water transport or carbon dioxide transport which can ultimately lead to more efficient photosynthesis. There is a wide diversity, both evolutionarily and biochemically, in C4 grasses as a group. Differences in evolutionary lineage or biochemical subtype might constrain both anatomical characteristics and physiological performance of these grasses. We are interested in understanding how leaf-level traits and anatomy are coordinated with photosynthetic functioning and the movement of water and carbon dioxide in these grasses, especially under droughted conditions. Identifying traits and the leaf-level mechanisms which promote efficient photosynthesis during water stress will be increasingly important as society is faced with future global change scenarios. |