Chater, C.C., Caine, R.S. orcid.org/0000-0002-6480-218X, Tomek, M. et al. (13 more authors) (2016) Origin and function of stomata in the moss Physcomitrella patens. Nature Plants, 2. 16179. ISSN 2055-026X
Abstract
Stomata are microscopic valves on plant surfaces that originated over 400 million years (Myr) ago and facilitated the greening of Earth's continents by permitting efficient shoot-atmosphere gas exchange and plant hydration(1). However, the core genetic machinery regulating stomatal development in non-vascular land plants is poorly understood(2-4) and their function has remained a matter of debate for a century(5). Here, we show that genes encoding the two basic helix-loop-helix proteins PpSMF1 (SPEECH, MUTE and FAMA-like) and PpSCREAM1 (SCRM1) in the moss Physcomitrella patens are orthologous to transcriptional regulators of stomatal development in the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana and essential for stomata formation in moss. Targeted P. patens knockout mutants lacking either PpSMF1 or PpSCRM1 develop gametophytes indistinguishable from wild-type plants but mutant sporophytes lack stomata. Protein-protein interaction assays reveal heterodimerization between PpSMF1 and PpSCRM1, which, together with moss-angiosperm gene complementations(6), suggests deep functional conservation of the heterodimeric SMF1 and SCRM1 unit is required to activate transcription for moss stomatal development, as in A. thaliana(7). Moreover, stomata-less sporophytes of ΔPpSMF1 and ΔPpSCRM1 mutants exhibited delayed dehiscence, implying stomata might have promoted dehiscence in the first complex land-plant sporophytes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Nature Plants. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) > Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) > Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Jan 2017 10:01 |
Last Modified: | 04 Nov 2017 23:57 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.179 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/nplants.2016.179 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:110366 |