Enid MacRobbie

My research has been concerned with ion transport in plant cells and tissues. Initially, I worked on basic processes of ion transport, using giant Characean algal cells as convenient experimental material. My interest in the mechanism and control of vacuolar salt accumulation led me to switch to stomatal guard cells, in which vacuolar salt levels change dramatically in the normal diurnal cycle or in response to environment signals. The focus of current work is centered on establishing the mechanisms by which stomatal closure is induced by the drought hormone, abscisic acid (ABA). Previous work in my group has concerned mechanisms of salt tolerance in halophytes, excretion of salt by halophytic salt glands, translocation in phloem, cytoplasmic streaming, study of plant ion channels in planar lipid bilayers, biochemical studies on phosphoinositide signaling pathways in guard cells, and studies on action potentials in Characean cells.