A game of two leaf sides: Abaxial vs Adaxial stomata.

Environmental drivers shape how adaxial versus abaxial stomata pattern and function, enabling surface-specific tuning of leaf gas exchange and water use efficiency.

• Why it matters: Stomata control both photosynthetic gas exchange and transpiration cooling, but adaxial stomata’s role has been underexplored despite their potential to alter conductance and intrinsic water use efficiency.
• What they did: The review synthesizes recent work comparing adaxial (AD) and abaxial (AB) stomatal contributions across gas exchange, costs and benefits of AD:AB ratios, and differential sensitivity to environmental cues.
• The result: It highlights opportunities to manipulate surface-specific stomatal patterning independently to optimize crop leaf gas exchange under different growth environments.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.