The GATA team publishes in Plant Cell on the role of the GNÜLLER GATA factors in stomata formation. Congratulations to Carina, Quirin, Manolis and Julia to this nice piece of work!
The GATA team publishes in Plant Cell on the role of the GNÜLLER GATA factors in stomata formation. Congratulations to Carina, Quirin, Manolis and Julia to this nice piece of work!
Klermund C., Ranftl Q.L., Diener J., Bastakis E., Richter R., and Schwechheimer C.(2016)
PLANT CELL 2016 : tpc.15.00783v1-TPC2015-00783.
Abstract:
Stomata are pores that regulate the gas and water exchange between the environment and above-ground plant tissues including hypocotyls, leaves, and stems. Here, we show that mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana LLM-domain B-GATA genes are defective in stomata formation in hypocotyls. Conversely, stomata formation is strongly promoted by overexpression of various LLM-domain B-class GATA genes, most strikingly in hypocotyls but also in cotyledons. Genetic analyses indicate that these B-GATAs act upstream from the stomata formation regulators SPCH (SPEECHLESS), MUTE, and SCREAM/SCREAM2 and downstream or independent from the patterning regulators TMM (TOO MANY MOUTHS) and SDD1 (STOMATAL DENSITY AND DISTRIBUTION1). The effects of the GATAs on stomata formation are light-dependent but can be induced in dark-grown seedlings by red, far-red or blue light treatments. Dark-grown PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTORS (PIFs) mutants form stomata and, interestingly, GATA expression is sufficient to induce stomata formation this background also in the dark. Since the expression of the LLM-domain B-GATAs GNC and GNL as well as that of SPCH is red-light induced but the induction of SPCH is compromised in a GATA gene mutant background, we hypothesize that PIF- and light-regulated stomata formation in hypocotyls is critically dependent on LLM-domain B-GATA genes.