Stomatal densities, aperture openness and their responsiveness to environmental change determine plant water loss and regulate entry of pathogens. Stomatal responsiveness is usually assessed on restricted areas of leaves or isolated epidermal peels floated in solution. Analyzing these responses in the whole plant context could give valuable additional information, for example on the role of mesophyll in stomatal responses. We analyzed stomatal responses to the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) and pathogenic elicitors in intact plants by dynamic measurement of leaf temperature. We tested whether ABA-induced stomatal closure in wheat requires external nitrate and whether bacterial elicitor-induced stomatal closure can be detected by dynamic thermal imaging in intact Arabidopsis. We found that wheat was hypersensitive to all applied treatments, as even mock-treated leaves showed a strong increase in leaf temperature. Nevertheless, ABA activated stomatal closure in wheat independent of exogenous nitrate. Pathogenic elicitors triggered a fast and transient increase in leaf temperature in intact Arabidopsis, indicating short-term stomatal closure. The data suggest that the dynamics of pathogen-induced stomatal closure is different in whole plants compared to epidermal peels, where elicitor-induced stomatal closure persists longer. We propose that dynamic thermal imaging could be applied to address the effect of pathogenic elicitors on stomatal behavior in whole plants to complement detached sample assays and gain a better understanding of stomatal immunity.
Keywords: ABA response; ABA-induced stomatal closure; Thermal imaging; pathogen-triggered stomatal closure; stomata; stomatal immunity.