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Updated: May 3, 2026

Author Spotlight: Image-Based Methods to Study Membrane Trafficking Events in Stomatal Lineage Cells
Published on: May 12, 2023
Auxin transport and activity regulate stomatal patterning and development
Jie Le1, Xu-Guang Liu2, Ke-Zhen Yang3
11] Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China [2] Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4.
Abstract:
Stomata are two-celled valves that control epidermal pores whose spacing optimizes shoot-atmosphere gas exchange. They develop from protodermal cells after unequal divisions followed by an equal division and differentiation. The concentration of the hormone auxin, a master plant developmental regulator, is tightly controlled in time and space, but its role, if any, in stomatal formation is obscure. Here dynamic changes of auxin activity during stomatal development are monitored using auxin input (DII-VENUS) and output (DR5:VENUS) markers by time-lapse imaging. A decrease in auxin levels in the smaller daughter cell after unequal division presages the acquisition of a guard mother cell fate whose equal division produces the two guard cells. Thus, stomatal patterning requires auxin pathway control of stem cell compartment size, as well as auxin depletion that triggers a developmental switch from unequal to equal division.
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