Stomatal cell biology

In the past two years, major advances in our knowledge of the cellular events involved in the formation of stomatal complexes, particularly those responsible for the establishment of the stomatal pattern, have been made. These events are altered in the Arabidopsis mutants sdd1-1, tmm and flp. Molecular cloning of the SDD1 gene initiated the elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanisms. The proposed function of SDD1 as a processing protease provides a hint towards the involvement of a proteinaceous signal in the formation of stomatal complexes.