Dear Editor, It has been known since the work of Francis Darwin that, in response to a reduction in atmospheric relative humidity （rh）, stomatal aperture decreases. Screening for Arabidopsis mutants compromised in ...Dear Editor, It has been known since the work of Francis Darwin that, in response to a reduction in atmospheric relative humidity （rh）, stomatal aperture decreases. Screening for Arabidopsis mutants compromised in stomatal responses to reduced rh resulted in the identification of two genes, OST1 and ABA2, that are involved in stomatal response to low rh conditions. Interestingly both encode proteins previously known to be involved in ABA signaling （Xie et al., 2006, and references therein）. These findings strongly suggested that, at least in part, the stomatal response to low rh is mediated by ABA and the intracellular ABA signaling pathway. Our most recent data show that low rh-induced stomatal closure can pro- ceed by guard cell autonomous ABA synthesis （Bauer et al., 2013）,展开更多
Dear Editor, Plants secrete nectar to attract mutualistic animals, which predominantly function as pollinators, as in the case of flo- ral nectar, or defenders against herbivores, as in the case of extrafloral nectar...Dear Editor, Plants secrete nectar to attract mutualistic animals, which predominantly function as pollinators, as in the case of flo- ral nectar, or defenders against herbivores, as in the case of extrafloral nectar （Nicolson et al., 2007）. Because nectars usu- ally represent aqueous solutions containing sugars and other nutrient metabolites （Baker and Baker, 1983）, they are sus- ceptible to infestation by microbial organisms, which can use the nectar-secreting tissues as entry sites to infect the plant. Nectar-secreting tissues thus require an efficient shield against pathogen infections. To date, our knowledge about the way that plants protect their nectar from microorganisms is rather limited. Several reports have focused on ＇defensive chemicals＇,展开更多
文摘Dear Editor, It has been known since the work of Francis Darwin that, in response to a reduction in atmospheric relative humidity （rh）, stomatal aperture decreases. Screening for Arabidopsis mutants compromised in stomatal responses to reduced rh resulted in the identification of two genes, OST1 and ABA2, that are involved in stomatal response to low rh conditions. Interestingly both encode proteins previously known to be involved in ABA signaling （Xie et al., 2006, and references therein）. These findings strongly suggested that, at least in part, the stomatal response to low rh is mediated by ABA and the intracellular ABA signaling pathway. Our most recent data show that low rh-induced stomatal closure can pro- ceed by guard cell autonomous ABA synthesis （Bauer et al., 2013）,
文摘Dear Editor, Plants secrete nectar to attract mutualistic animals, which predominantly function as pollinators, as in the case of flo- ral nectar, or defenders against herbivores, as in the case of extrafloral nectar （Nicolson et al., 2007）. Because nectars usu- ally represent aqueous solutions containing sugars and other nutrient metabolites （Baker and Baker, 1983）, they are sus- ceptible to infestation by microbial organisms, which can use the nectar-secreting tissues as entry sites to infect the plant. Nectar-secreting tissues thus require an efficient shield against pathogen infections. To date, our knowledge about the way that plants protect their nectar from microorganisms is rather limited. Several reports have focused on ＇defensive chemicals＇,
