ABA-induced stomatal movements in vascular plants during dehydration and rehydration

Abstract The variation in stomatal movement across vascular plants in response to abscisic acid (ABA) has received great attention in recent years. This review is an attempt to better understand the role of ABA in the stomatal movement of seed and seedless plants under dehydration and rehydration. Seed plants, i.e., gymnosperms and angiosperms, have two divergent ABA responses, the peaking type (P-type) and rising type (R-type), to induce stomatal closure under sustained drought stress. However, in the case of ferns and lycophytes, stomata of almost all species exhibit insensitive (I-type) behaviour to ABA. Consequently, seed plants have evolved an optimized water use efficiency to improve their succession in terrestrial ecosystems. During rehydration, the recovery of gas exchange is constrained by ABA accumulation under drought in R-type plants and constrained by hydraulics in P- and I-type plants. Thus, future studies should investigate the mechanisms underlying the divergence in stomata in response to ABA, focusing on P-type vs. R-type ABA responses in seed plants, the competition of seed plants, and the interaction between ABA and hydraulic pathways during rehydration.