A Role for Ethylene Signaling and Biosynthesis in Regulating and Accelerating CO 2 - and ABA-mediated Stomatal Movements in Arabidopsis.

Little is known about long-distance mesophyll-driven signals that regulate stomatal conductance. Soluble and/or vapor-phase molecules have been proposed. In this study, the involvement of the gaseous signal ethylene in the modulation of stomatal conductance in Arabidopsis thaliana by CO 2 /ABA was examined. We present a diffusion model which indicates that gaseous signaling-molecule/s with a shorter/direct diffusion pathway to guard cells are more probable for rapid mesophyll-dependent stomatal conductance changes. We, therefore, analyzed different Arabidopsis ethylene signaling and biosynthesis mutants for their ethylene production and kinetics of stomatal responses to ABA/[CO 2 ]-shifts. According to our research, higher [CO 2 ] causes Arabidopsis rosettes to produce more ethylene. An ACC-synthase octuple mutant with reduced ethylene biosynthesis exhibits dysfunctional CO 2 -induced stomatal movements. Ethylene-insensitive receptor (gain-of-function), etr1-1 and etr2-1, and signaling, ein2-5 and ein2-1, mutants showed intact stomatal responses to [CO 2 ]-shifts. Whereas loss-of-function ethylene receptor mutants, including etr2-3;ein4-4;ers2-3, etr1-6;etr2-3 and etr1-6, showed markedly accelerated stomatal responses to [CO 2 ]-shifts. Further investigation revealed a significantly impaired stomatal closure to ABA in the ACC-synthase octuple mutant and accelerated stomatal responses in the etr1-6;etr2-3, and etr1-6, but not in the etr2-3;ein4-4;ers2-3 mutants. These findings suggest essential functions of ethylene biosynthesis and signaling components in tuning/accelerating stomatal conductance responses to CO 2 and ABA.