Isolation and characterization of a barley mutant with abscisic-acid-insensitive stomata

A barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) mutant ("cool") with leaf transpiration unaffected by the application of 1 mM abscisic acid (ABA) was isolated from the population of M2 seedlings using thermography (electronic visualization, and quantitation of the temperature profiles on the surface of the leaves). Stomata of the mutant plants were insensitive to exogenously applied ABA, darkness, and such desiccation treatments as leaf excision and drought stress. The evaporative cooling of the leaves of the "cool" barley was always higher than that of the wild-type barley, even without ABA application, indicating that the diffusive resistance of the mutant leaves to water loss was always lower. Guard-cell morphology and stomatal density as well as ABA level and metabolism were seemingly unaltered in the mutant plants. In addition, gibberellin-induced α-amylase secretion and precocious embryo germination in the mutant barley was inhibited by ABA to the same extent as in the wild-type barley.