Phosphorylation of the Polarity Protein BASL Differentiates Asymmetric Cell Fate through MAPKs and SPCH

Cell polarization is commonly used for the regulation of stem cell asymmetric division in both animals and plants. Stomatal development in Arabidopsis, a process that produces breathing pores in the epidermis, requires asymmetric cell division to differentiate highly specialized guard cells while maintaining a stem cell population [1, 2]. The BREAKING OF ASYMMETRY IN THE STOMATAL LINEAGE (BASL) protein exhibits a polarized localization pattern in the cell and is required for differential cell fates resulting from asymmetric cell division [3]. The polarization of BASL is made possible by a positive feedback loop with a canonical mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway that recruits the MAPKK kinase YODA (YDA) and MAPK 6 (MPK6) to the cortical polarity site [4]. Here, we study BASL intracellular dynamics and show that the membrane-associated BASL is slowly replenished at the cortical polarity site and that the mobility is tightly linked to its phosphorylation status. Because BASL polarity is only exhibited by one daughter cell after an asymmetric cell division, we study how BASL differentially functions in the two daughter cells. The YDA MAPK cascade transduces upstream ligand-receptor signaling [5-13] to the transcription factor SPEECHLESS (SPCH), which controls stomatal initiation and is directly suppressed by MPK3/6-mediated phosphorylation [14, 15]. We show that BASL polarization leads to elevated nuclear MPK6 signaling and lowered SPCH abundance in one of the two daughter cells. Therefore, two daughter cells are differentiated by BASL polarity-mediated differential suppression of SPCH, which may provide developmental plasticity in plant stem cell asymmetric cell division (ACD).