The permeability of the epidermal cell plasma membrane of barley leaves to abscisic acid

Abstract

Uptake of 3H-labelled (±)-abscisic acid (ABA) into isolated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) epidermal cell protoplasts (ECP) was followed over a range of pH values and ABA concentrations. The present results show that ABA uptake is not always linearly correlated with the external concentration of undissociated ABA (ABAH). At pH 7.25, ABA uptake exhibited saturation kinetics with an apparent Km value of 75 mmol·m−3 to tal ABA. This saturable transport component was inhibited by pretreating the protoplasts with 1 mol·m−3p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonic acid at pH 8.0, conditions that minimized the uptake of this acid sulfhydryl reagent. Moreover, the rate of (±)-[3]HABA uptake was reduced by addition of 0.1 mol·m−3 (±)-ABA to 41%, whereas the same concentration of (±)-ABA was approximately half as effective (46% of the inhibitory effect). Thus, it was concluded that only (±)-ABA competes for an ABA carrier that is located in the epidermal cell plasma membrane. The permeability of the epidermal cell plasma membrane was studied by performing a Collander analysis. At pH 6 the overall plasma-membrane permeability of epidermal cells was similar to that of guard cells but was about two times higher than that of mesophyll cells.