2025-03-24 イェール大学
<関連情報>
- https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/innovative-approach-measuring-microscopic-changes-plant-cells
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2419887122
蘚苔類における光活性化ガード細胞の張力調節の欠如がin situキャビテーション気泡マノメトリーによって明らかにされる In situ cavitation bubble manometry reveals a lack of light-activated guard cell turgor modulation in bryophytes
Craig R. Brodersen, Tim J. Brodribb, Uri Hochberg, +4 , and Philippe Marmottant
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences March 26, 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2419887122
Significance
Stomatal evolution was a primary driver in the radical transformation of Earth’s atmosphere over the past 400 my, providing plants with the ability to regulate water loss and optimize photosynthesis. Modulating guard cell turgor pressure was a key innovation, which may be unique to vascular plant lineages. However, interrogating cell turgor pressure remains challenging and limits our ability to understand the evolution and diversity of stomatal behavior. Here, we present a method to estimate changes in epidermal cell turgor pressure in situ by nucleating cavitation microbubbles inside epidermal cells and observing their dynamics using a high-speed camera. This study shows that vascular plant guard cells increase their turgor pressure in response to light, while nonvascular plant stomata fail to respond.
Abstract
Diversification of plant hydraulic architecture and stomatal function coincides with radical changes in the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 400 my. Due to shared stomatal anatomy with the earliest land plants, bryophyte stomatal behavior may provide insights into the evolution of stomatal function, but significant uncertainty remains due to technical limitations of measuring guard cell turgor pressure in situ. Here, we introduce a method for monitoring cell turgor pressure by nucleating microbubbles within the guard cells of intact plant tissue and then examining microbubble growth and dissolution dynamics. First, we show that maximum microbubble radius decreases with increasing pressure as the pressure of the surrounding fluid constrains its growth according to a modified version of the Epstein–Plesset equation. We then apply this method to monitor turgor pressure in dark- vs. light-acclimated guard cells across bryophyte taxa with stomata, where their role in gas-exchange remains ambiguous, and in vascular plants with well-documented light-dependent turgor modulation. Our findings show no light-activated change in turgor in bryophyte guard cells, with pressures not significantly different than neighboring epidermal cells. In contrast, vascular plants show distinct pressure modulation in response to light that drives reversible changes in stomatal aperture. Complete guard cell turgor loss had no effect on bryophyte stomatal aperture but resulted in partial or complete closure in vascular plants. These results suggest that despite conserved stomatal morphology, the sampled bryophytes lack dynamic control over guard cell turgor that is critical for sustaining photosynthesis and inhibiting desiccation.
