Editor's Summary

27 March 2008

A stomatal ion channel

The stomata on the undersides of leaves control the exchange of carbon dioxide and water between plants and the atmosphere. Stomatal pore aperture is regulated by transport of ions and metabolites across guard-cell membranes. Perhaps surprisingly, until now no plant plasma membrane anion channel subunits have been cloned — and the homologues of animal anion channels have been shown not to encode functional ion channels in plants. Now two groups working independently have identified a protein that is an essential component for S-type anion channel function and is required for stomatal closure in response to a variety of physiological and stress stimuli. Termed SLAC1, it is a distant homologue of fungal and bacterial dicarboxylate/malic acid transport proteins.

Letter: CO₂ regulator SLAC1 and its homologues are essential for anion homeostasis in plant cells

Juntaro Negi, Osamu Matsuda, Takashi Nagasawa, Yasuhiro Oba, Hideyuki Takahashi, Maki Kawai-Yamada, Hirofumi Uchimiya, Mimi Hashimoto & Koh Iba

doi:10.1038/nature06720

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (906K) | Supplementary information

Letter: SLAC1 is required for plant guard cell S-type anion channel function in stomatal signalling

Triin Vahisalu, Hannes Kollist, Yong-Fei Wang, Noriyuki Nishimura, Wai-Yin Chan, Gabriel Valerio, Airi Lamminmäki, Mikael Brosché, Heino Moldau, Radhika Desikan, Julian I. Schroeder & Jaakko Kangasjärvi

doi:10.1038/nature06608

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (600K) | Supplementary information