Novel regulation of transpiration by sugar signals within guard cells
Water is the major limiting factor in agriculture and stomata, composed of two guard cells and the pore they circumscribe, are the chief gates controlling plants’ water loss. The prevailing century old paradigm was that sugars act as an osmoticum in guard cells, contributing to the opening of the stomata. In contrast, we discovered that sugars close stomata and the closure is mediated by the sugar-sensing enzyme hexokinase (HXK) that triggers the abscisic acid (ABA)-signaling pathway within the guard cells. This new discovery suggests a sugar-sensing mechanism within guard cells that controls stomatal closure, and supports the existence of a stomatal feedback mechanism that coordinates photosynthesis with transpiration.