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Information Processing by Stomatal Networks |
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Keith A. Mott |
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Biology Department, Utah
State University, Logan, Utah, USA |
| *email:
kmott@biology.usu.edu
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Stomata must respond to environmental factors
such that they open to admit enough CO2 for photosynthesis, yet close sufficiently to prevent
excessive water loss. Much of this regulation occurs at the level of the individual pore, through signal
transduction pathways in the guard cells. However there is increasing evidence that stomata interact with each
other over short distances and can therefore be said to form a locally-connected network. We present evidence
showing that stomatal networks may be processing information in a manner similar to artificial networks that
perform distributed emergent computation. This information processing may allow stomata networks to optimize
gas exchange for an entire leaf or plant despite the fact that each individual stoma has only local
information. |
