Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1977 Oct;74(10):4434–4438. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.10.4434

Organic acid and potassium accumulation in guard cells during stomatal opening

William H Outlaw Jr 1,*, Oliver H Lowry 1
PMCID: PMC431957  PMID: 16592449

Abstract

Leaflets of Vicia faba L. with either open or closed stomata were quick-frozen and freeze-dried. Individual guard cell pairs and pure samples of palisade parenchyma, spongy parenchyma, and epidermis lacking guard cells were dissected from the leaflets, weighed, and assayed for organic acids or K+.K+ was measured by a new enzymatic method. In guard cells of open stomata, as compared to closed stomata, K+ was 2- to 4-fold higher, malic acid 6-fold higher, and citric acid 3-fold higher. Both aspartic and glutamic acids were also higher, but the amounts present were low compared to malic and citric acids. Isocitric acid was significantly higher in one experiment, but not in another. Glyceric acid was not increased. Succinic acid was too low to detect by the method used; but in guard cells of open stomata the concentration must have been less than 2% of that of malic acid. Malic acid was higher in the palisade parenchyma from the leaflet with open stomata. The ion balance shows that malic and citric acids provide much of the counter ion for the K+ taken up during stomatal opening

Keywords: palisade parenchyma, spongy parenchyma, epidermis, CO2 uptake, transpiration

Full text

PDF
4434

Images in this article

4435Image
on p.4435

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BURCH H. B., STORVICK C. A., BICKNELL R. L., KUNG H. C., ALEJO L. G., EVERHART W. A., LOWRY O. H., KING C. G., BESSEY O. A. Metabolic studies of precursors of pyridine nucleotides. J Biol Chem. 1955 Feb;212(2):897–907. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Dhindsa R. S., Beasley C. A., Ting I. P. Osmoregulation in Cotton Fiber: Accumulation of Potassium and Malate during Growth. Plant Physiol. 1975 Sep;56(3):394–398. doi: 10.1104/pp.56.3.394. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Fischer R. A., Hsiao T. C. Stomatal Opening in Isolated Epidermal Strips of Vicia faba. II. Responses to KCl Concentration and the Role of Potassium Absorption. Plant Physiol. 1968 Dec;43(12):1953–1958. doi: 10.1104/pp.43.12.1953. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Goldberg N. D., Passonneau J. V., Lowry O. H. Effects of changes in brain metabolism on the levels of citric acid cycle intermediates. J Biol Chem. 1966 Sep 10;241(17):3997–4003. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Humble G. D., Hsiao T. C. Light-dependent Influx and Efflux of Potassium of Guard Cells during Stomatal Opening and Closing. Plant Physiol. 1970 Sep;46(3):483–487. doi: 10.1104/pp.46.3.483. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Humble G. D., Raschke K. Stomatal opening quantitatively related to potassium transport: evidence from electron probe analysis. Plant Physiol. 1971 Oct;48(4):447–453. doi: 10.1104/pp.48.4.447. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kato T., Berger S. J., Carter J. A., Lowry O. H. An enzymatic cycling method for nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide with malic and alcohol dehydrogenases. Anal Biochem. 1973 May;53(1):86–97. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(73)90409-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Krebs H. A., Eggleston L. V. The effect of citrate on the rotation of the molybdate complexes of malate, citramalate and isocitrate. Biochem J. 1943 Sep;37(3):334–338. doi: 10.1042/bj0370334. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Levitt J. The mechanism of stomatal movement--once more. Review article. Protoplasma. 1974;82(1):1–17. doi: 10.1007/BF01276868. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Macnicol P. K. Rapid Metabolic Changes in the Wounding Response of Leaf Discs following Excision. Plant Physiol. 1976 Jan;57(1):80–84. doi: 10.1104/pp.57.1.80. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Pallas J. E., Wright B. G. Organic Acid Changes in the Epidermis of Vicia faba and Their Implication in Stomatal Movement. Plant Physiol. 1973 Mar;51(3):588–590. doi: 10.1104/pp.51.3.588. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Pucher G. W., Vickery H. B., Wakeman A. J. RELATIONSHIP OF THE ORGANIC ACIDS OF TOBACCO TO THE INORGANIC BASIC CONSTITUENTS. Plant Physiol. 1938 Jul;13(3):621–630. doi: 10.1104/pp.13.3.621. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sawhney B. L., Zelitch I. Direct determination of potassium ion accumulation in guard cells in relation to stomatal opening in light. Plant Physiol. 1969 Sep;44(9):1350–1354. doi: 10.1104/pp.44.9.1350. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES