Guarding the gates: stomatal responses to pathogens

Pathogens exploit different infection strategies to infect plants and stomata represent a direct pathway by which microbes can enter the plant. To counter this, guard cells have evolved the ability to detect conserved microbial molecules and close stomata. In our attempts to understand the full nature of the interactions that occur between a potential pathogen and its host, we are focussing on stomatal immunity. The plasma membrane receptor FLS2 confers plant immunity through perception of bacterial flagellin (flg22), which triggers stomatal closure. Despite the importance of stomatal immunity, the pathways underlying stomatal behavior and their interaction with immunity control remain largely unknown. To address this, we determined the genetic framework of stomatal immunity. I will present our high-throughput imaging pipeline of detecting stomatal apertures, and will discuss some of our recent findings of stomatal immunity control. This includes some recent works on ESCRT-I components that are required for plant immunity at the level of stomata closure. Taken together, advanced bioimaging allows us to tackle the role of stomatal closure involved in the interaction between plants and microbes.