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ABSTRACT Understanding how plants regulate water loss is important for improving crop productivity. Tight control of stomatal opening and closing is essential for the uptake of CO2while mitigating water vapor loss. The opening of stomata is regulated in part by homotypic vacuole fusion, which is mediated by conservedhomotypic vacuoleproteinsorting (HOPS) and vacuolar SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor attachment protein receptors) complexes. HOPS tethers apposing vacuole membranes and promotes the formation oftrans-SNARE complexes to mediate fusion. In yeast, HOPS dissociates from the assembled SNARE complex to complete vacuole fusion, but little is known about this process in plants. HOPS-specific subunits VACUOLE PROTEIN SORTING39 (VPS39) and VPS41 are required for homotypic plant vacuole fusion, and a computational model predicted that post-translational modifications of HOPS may be needed for plant stomatal vacuole fusion. Here, we characterized a viable T-DNA insertion allele ofVPS39which demonstrated a critical role of VPS39 in stomatal vacuole fusion. We found that VPS39 has increased levels of phosphorylation when stomata are closed versus open, and that VPS39 function in stomata and embryonic development requires dynamic changes in phosphorylation. Our data are consistent with VPS39 phosphorylation altering vacuole dynamics in response to environmental cues, similar to well-established phosphorylation cascades that regulate ion transport during stomatal opening. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTVacuole fusion is important for stomata opening but how it is regulated in response of stomata opening signals is not characterized. This research demonstrated the role of the HOPS complex in vacuole fusion in stomata, and it identified phosphorylation sites in the HOPS subunit VPS39 that are critical for vacuole fusion. One Ser residue was enriched in closed stomata and represents a putative site for control of vacuole fusion downstream of stomata opening signals.
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This content will become publicly available on October 15, 2026
Guard Cell-Enriched Phosphoproteome Reveals Phosphorylation of Endomembrane Proteins in Closed Stomata
ABSTRACT Control of the stomatal aperture is multifaceted, involving a complex interplay of environmental cues and intracellular signaling pathways. It is well established that changes in ion gradients drive water movement into and out of the guard cell, thereby altering cell volume and modulating the opening or closing of the stomatal pore. These rapid responses are often regulated by phosphorylation cascades to efficiently transmit environmental status and either reduce water loss or enhance carbon assimilation. The role of endomembrane trafficking networks in stomatal dynamics is not well characterized. Here, we investigated the regulation of stomatal opening and closing by generating a proteome and phosphoproteome of guard cell-enriched tissue. This deep proteome captured a protein profile that was similar to previously characterized guard cell proteomes. The guard cell-enriched tissue with closed stomata showed greater levels of phosphorylation of proteins related to endomembrane trafficking and vacuoles when compared to both whole leaf tissue with closed stomata and guard cell-enriched tissue with open stomata. These results support the hypothesis that phosphorylation of endomembrane proteins may contribute to the regulation of stomatal movements.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1918746
- PAR ID:
- 10643675
- Publisher / Repository:
- bioRxiv
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Plant, vacuole, phosphoproteome, guard cell
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Phosphorylation of the penultimate residue, threonine (pen-Thr), of plasma membrane (PM) H+-ATPase is essential for its activation and blue light (BL)-induced stomatal opening. However, the regulatory mechanism of action of PM H+-ATPase pen-Thr phosphorylation is not completely understood. Here, we performed screening using a protein kinase inhibitor library and found that tyrphostin AG126 inhibited phosphorylation of PM H+-ATPase pen-Thr in guard cells in response to light and fungal toxin fusicoccin (FC), in addition to inhibition of light- and FC-induced stomatal opening. Analysis of the structure–activity relationship using AG126 derivatives revealed the hydroxyl group at the C-5 position of the compound to be essential for its activity. We further characterized one AG126 derivative, AGD-1, which effectively suppressed BL-induced stomatal opening with a half-inhibitory concentration of 2.0 μM. AGD-1 inhibited PM H+-ATPase pen-Thr phosphorylation in guard cells in response to BL and FC. In addition, AGD-1 suppressed FC-induced PM H+-ATPase pen-Thr phosphorylation in mesophyll cell protoplasts, implying that the effect of AGD-1 is not specific to guard cells. Furthermore, to improve the permeability of AGD-1, we synthesized acetylated AGD-1 (AcAGD-1), which was found to suppress BL- and FC-induced stomatal opening. AcAGD-1 suppressed light-induced PM H+-ATPase pen-Thr phosphorylation, but not Thr881 phosphorylation, in leaf discs, which is important for guard cell PM H+-ATPase activation in addition to pen-Thr phosphorylation. This study identified a novel stomatal opening inhibitor capable of specifically inhibiting PM H+-ATPase pen-Thr phosphorylation.more » « less
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