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phot1 and phot2 mediate blue light regulation of stomatal opening

Nature volume 414, pages 656–660 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

The stomatal pores of higher plants allow for gaseous exchange into and out of leaves. Situated in the epidermis, they are surrounded by a pair of guard cells which control their opening in response to many environmental stimuli, including blue light1,2. Opening of the pores is mediated by K+ accumulation in guard cells through a K+ channel and driven by an inside-negative electrical potential3. Blue light causes phosphorylation and activation of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase that creates this potential1,2,4,5,6. Thus far, no blue light receptor mediating stomatal opening has been identified7, although the carotenoid, zeaxanthin, has been proposed2,8. Arabidopsis mutants deficient in specific blue-light-mediated responses have identified7,9,10,11,12,13,14 four blue light receptors, cryptochrome 1 (cry1), cryptochrome 2 (cry2), phot1 and phot2. Here we show that in a double mutant of phot1 and phot2 stomata do not respond to blue light although single mutants are phenotypically normal. These results demonstrate that phot1 and phot2 act redundantly as blue light receptors mediating stomatal opening.

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Figure 1: Analyses of Arabidopsis blue-light photoreceptor mutants.
Figure 2: Stomatal opening under blue light.
Figure 3: Amount of plasma membrane H+-ATPase, fusicoccin-induced stomatal opening, and blue light-dependent H+ extrusion in Arabidopsis blue light photoreceptor mutants.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Silverthorne for a critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported in part by a grant from the research fellowships of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists to T. Kinoshita and N.S., a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan to K.S. and M.W., and Kyushu University Interdisciplinary Programmes in Education and Projects in Research Development to K.S. This work was also supported partly by the PROBRAIN and NOVARTIS to M.W. and partly by a grant from PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Corporation (T. Kagawa).

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Author notes

  1. Toshinori Kinoshita, Michio Doi and Takatoshi Kagawa: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Ropponmatsu, 810-8560, Fukuoka, Japan

    Toshinori Kinoshita, Michio Doi & Ken-ichiro Shimazaki

  2. Division of Biological Regulation and Photobiology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, 444-8585, Japan

    Noriyuki Suetsugu, Takatoshi Kagawa & Masamitsu Wada

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan

    Noriyuki Suetsugu & Masamitsu Wada

  4. Unit Process and Combined Circuit, PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, 1-8, Honcho 4-chome, Kawaguchi, 332-0012, Saitama, Japan

    Takatoshi Kagawa

Authors
  1. Toshinori Kinoshita
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  6. Ken-ichiro Shimazaki
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Correspondence to Ken-ichiro Shimazaki.

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Kinoshita, T., Doi, M., Suetsugu, N. et al. phot1 and phot2 mediate blue light regulation of stomatal opening. Nature 414, 656–660 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/414656a

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