title: The conceptual approach to quantitative modeling of guard cells.
abstract: Much of the 70% of global water usage associated with agriculture passes through stomatal pores of plant leaves. The guard cells, which regulate these pores, thus have a profound influence on photosynthetic carbon assimilation and water use efficiency of plants. We recently demonstrated how quantitative mathematical modeling of guard cells with the OnGuard modeling software yields detail sufficient to guide phenotypic and mutational analysis. This advance represents an all-important step toward applications in directing "reverse-engineering" of guard cell function for improved water use efficiency and carbon assimilation. OnGuard is nonetheless challenging for those unfamiliar with a modeler's way of thinking. In practice, each model construct represents a hypothesis under test, to be discarded, validated or refined by comparisons between model predictions and experimental results. The few guidelines set out here summarize the standard and logical starting points for users of the OnGuard software.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biophysics; University of Glasgow; Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Blatt
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biophysics; University of Glasgow; Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hills
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biophysics; University of Glasgow; Glasgow, UK; School of Science and Health; University of Western Sydney; Richmond, NSW Australia.
authors.forename: Zhong-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biophysics; University of Glasgow; Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Yizhou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biophysics; University of Glasgow; Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Papanatsiou
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biophysics; University of Glasgow; Glasgow, UK; The Physiological Laboratory; University of Cambridge; Cambridge UK.
authors.forename: Vigilio L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Lew
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D010788:Photosynthesis; D059828:Plant Cells; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000166:cytology*; D054046:Plant Stomata; D018526:Plant Transpiration; D012984:Software; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D002244:Carbon