Stomatal responses to vapour pressure deficit are regulated by high speed gene expression in angiosperms

Plants dynamically regulate water use by the movement of stomata on the surface of leaves. Stomatal responses to changes in vapour pressure deficit (VPD) are the principal regulator of daytime transpiration and water use efficiency in land plants. In angiosperms, stomatal responses to VPD appear to be regulated by the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA), yet the origin of this ABA is controversial. After a 20 min exposure of plants, from three diverse angiosperm species, to a doubling in VPD, stomata closed, foliar ABA levels increased and the expression of the gene encoding the key, rate‐limiting carotenoid cleavage enzyme (9‐cis‐epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase, NCED) in the ABA biosynthetic pathway was significantly up‐regulated. The NCED gene was the only gene in the ABA biosynthetic pathway to be up‐regulated over the short time scale corresponding to the response of stomata. The closure of stomata and rapid increase in foliar ABA levels could not be explained by the release of ABA from internal stores in the leaf or the hydrolysis of the conjugate ABA‐glucose ester. These results implicate an extremely rapid de novo biosynthesis of ABA, mediated by a single gene, as the means by which angiosperm stomata respond to natural changes in VPD.