Role of the stomatal development regulators FLP/MYB88 in abiotic stress responses

Abstract

Stomata are vital for the adaptation of plants to abiotic stress, and in turn stomatal density is modulated by environmental factors. Less clear, however, is whether regulators of stomatal development themselves participate in the sensing or response of stomata to abiotic stress. FOUR LIPS (FLP) and its paralog MYB88 encode MYB proteins that establish stomatal patterning by permitting only a single symmetric division before stomata differentiate. Hence, flp-1 myb88 double mutants have an excess of stomata, which are often misplaced in direct contact. Here, we investigate the consequences of loss of FLP/MYB88 function on the ability of Arabidopsis plants to respond to abiotic stress. While flp-1 myb88 double mutants are viable and display no obvious aerial phenotypes under normal greenhouse growth conditions, we show that flp-1 myb88 plants are significantly more susceptible to drought and high salt, and have increased rates of water loss. To determine whether flp-1 myb88 plants are already challenged under normal growth conditions, we compared genome-wide transcript levels between flp-1 myb88 and wild-type green tissues. Unexpectedly, uninduced flp-1 myb88 plants showed a reduced accumulation of many typical abiotic stress gene transcripts. Moreover, the induction of many of these stress genes under high-salt conditions was significantly lower in flp-1 myb88 plants. Our results provide evidence for a new function of FLP/MYB88 in sensing and/or transducing abiotic stress, which is severely compromised in flp-1 myb88 mutants.