Stomatal opening under high temperatures is controlled by the OST1-regulated TOT3-AHA1 module

Xiangyu Xu, Hongyan Liu, Myrthe Praat, Gaston A Pizzio, Zhang Jiang, Steven Michiel Driever, Ren Wang, Brigitte Van De Cotte, Selwyn L Y Villers, Kris Gevaert, Nathalie Leonhardt, Hilde Nelissen, Toshinori Kinoshita, Steffen Vanneste, Pedro L Rodriguez, Martijn van Zanten, Lam Dai Vu, Ive De Smet*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Plants continuously respond to changing environmental conditions to prevent damage and maintain optimal performance. To regulate gas exchange with the environment and to control abiotic stress relief, plants have pores in their leaf epidermis, called stomata. Multiple environmental signals affect the opening and closing of these stomata. High temperatures promote stomatal opening (to cool down), and drought induces stomatal closing (to prevent water loss). Coinciding stress conditions may evoke conflicting stomatal responses, but the cellular mechanisms to resolve these conflicts are unknown. Here we demonstrate that the high-temperature-associated kinase TARGET OF TEMPERATURE 3 directly controls the activity of plasma membrane H+-ATPases to induce stomatal opening. OPEN STOMATA 1, which regulates stomatal closure to prevent water loss during drought stress, directly inactivates TARGET OF TEMPERATURE 3 through phosphorylation. Taken together, this signalling axis harmonizes stomatal opening and closing under high temperatures and/or drought. In the context of global climate change, understanding how different stress signals converge on stomatal regulation allows the development of climate-change-ready crops.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNature Plants
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 29 Nov 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024.

Funding

We thank D. Van Damme and B. De Rybel for critical comments on the manuscript. We thank E. Farmer for providing the ost2-2D seeds, M. B. Palmgren for the aha1-6 seeds and the Eurasian Arabidopsis Stock Centre for providing various seeds. This work was supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 grant no. PID2020-113100RB (to P.L.R.), Graduate School Green Top Sectors grant no. GSGT.2018.007 of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (to M.P. and M.v.Z.), UGent BOF postdoctoral mandate no. 01P12219 (to L.D.V.), UGent BOF doctoral mandate no. 01CD7122 (to X.X.), China Scholarship Council grant no. 201708340063 (to R.W.), China Scholarship Council grant no. 201706350153 (to X.X.), China Scholarship Council grant no. 201806170025 (to Z.J.) and China Scholarship Council grant no. 202204910025 (to H.L.).

FundersFunder number
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Graduate School Green Top Sectors
Universiteit Gent01CD7122, 01P12219
China Scholarship Council201806170025, 201708340063, 201706350153, 202204910025

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