Stress memory in plants: a negative regulation of stomatal response and transient induction of rd22 gene to light in abscisic acid-entrained Arabidopsis plants

All organisms, including plants, perceive environmental stress, and they use this information to modify their behavior or development. Here, we demonstrate that Arabidopsis plants have memory functions related to repeated exposure to stressful concentrations of the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA), which acts as a chemical signal. Repeated exposure of plants to ABA (40 micro m for 2 h) impaired light-induced stomatal opening or inhibited the response to a light stimulus after ABA-entrainment under both dark/light cycle and continuous light. Moreover, there were transient expressions of the rd22 gene during the same periods under both the growing conditions. Such acquired information in ABA-entrained plants produced a long-term sensitization. When the time of light application was changed, a transient induction of the rd22 gene in plants after ABA-entrainment indicated that these were light-associated responses. These transient effects were also observed in kin1, rab18, and rd29B. The transient expression of AtNCED3, causing the accumulation of endogenous ABA, indicated a possible regulation by ABA-dependent pathways in ABA-entrained plants. An ABA immunoassay supported this hypothesis: ABA-entrained plants showed a transient increase in endogenous ABA level from 220 to 250 pmol g-1 fresh mass at 1-2 h of the training period, whereas ABA-deficient (aba2) mutants did not. Taking into account these results, we propose that plants have the ability to memorize stressful environmental experiences, and discuss the molecular events in ABA-entrained plants.