5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA), a newly proved natural plant growth regulator, is well known to improve plant photosynthesis under both normal and stressful conditions. However, its underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. Stomatal closure is one of the major limiting factors for photosynthesis and abscisic acid (ABA) is the most important hormone in provoking stomatal closing. Here, we showed that ALA significantly inhibited ABA-induced stomatal closure using wild-type and ALA-overproducing transgenic Arabidopsis (YHem1). We found that ALA decreased ABA-induced H2O2 and cytosolic Ca2+ accumulation in guard cells with stomatal bioassay, laser-scanning confocal microscopy and pharmacological methods. The inhibitory effect of ALA on ABA-induced stomatal closure was similar to that of AsA (an important reducing substrate for H2O2 removal), CAT (a H2O2-scavenging enzyme), DPI (an inhibitor of the H2O2-generating NADPH oxidase), EGTA (a Ca-chelating agent), and AlCl3 (an inhibitor of calcium channel). Furthermore, ALA inhibited exogenous H2O2- or Ca2+-induced stomatal closure. Taken together, we conclude that ALA inhibits ABA-induced stomatal closure via reducing H2O2, probably by scavenging, and Ca2+ levels in guard cells. Moreover, the inhibitive effect of ALA on ABA-induced stomatal closure was further confirmed in the whole plant. Finally, we demonstrated that ALA inhibits stomatal closing, but significantly improves plant drought tolerance. Our results provide valuable information for the promotion of plant production and development of a sustainable low-carbon society.

5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), a new plant growth regulator, can inhibit stomatal closure by reducing H2O2 accumulation in guard cells. Flavonols are a main kind of flavonoids and have been proposed as H2O2 scavengers in guard cells. 5-aminolevulinic acid can significantly improve flavonoids accumulation in plants. However, whether ALA increases flavonols content in guard cells and the role of flavonols in ALA-regulated stomatal movement remains unclear. In this study, we first demonstrated that ALA pretreatment inhibited ABA-induced stomatal closure by reducing H2O2 accumulation in guard cells of Arabidopsis seedlings. This result confirms the inhibitory effect of ALA on stomatal closure and the important role of decreased H2O2 accumulation in this process. We also found that ALA significantly improved flavonols accumulation in guard cells using a flavonol-specific dye. Furthermore, using exogenous quercetin and kaempferol, two major components of flavonols in Arabidopsis leaves, we showed that flavonols accumulation inhibited ABA-induced stomatal movement by suppressing H2O2 in guard cells. Finally, we showed that the inhibitory effect of ALA on ABA-induced stomatal closure was largely impaired in flavonoid-deficient transparent testa4 (tt4) mutant. In addition, exogenous flavonols recovered stomatal responses of tt4 to the wild-type levels. Taken together, we conclude that ALA-induced flavonol accumulation in guard cells is partially involved in the inhibitory effect of ALA on ABA-induced H2O2 accumulation and stomatal closure. Our data provide direct evidence that ALA can regulate stomatal movement by improving flavonols accumulation, revealing new insights into guard cell signaling.

Skin color is a key quality attribute of fruits and how to improve fruit coloration has long been a major concern. 5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA), a natural plant growth regulator, can significantly increase anthocyanin accumulation in fruit skin and therefore effectively improve coloration of many fruits, including apple. However, the molecular mechanism how ALA stimulates anthocyanin accumulation in fruit skin remains unknown. Here, we investigated the impact of ALA on apple skin at the protein and mRNA levels. A total of 85 differentially expressed proteins in apple skins between ALA and water treatment (control) were identified by complementary gel-based and gel-free separation techniques. Most of these differentially expressed proteins were up-regulated by ALA. Function analysis suggested that 87.06% of the ALA-responsive proteins were associated with fruit ripening. To further screen ALA-responsive regulators, we constructed a subtracted cDNA library (tester: ALA treatment; driver: control) and obtained 104 differentially expressed unigenes, of which 38 unigenes were indicators for the fruit ripening-related genes. The differentially changed proteins and transcripts did not correspond well at an individual level, but showed similar regulated direction in function at the pathway level. Among the identified fruit ripening-related genes, the expression of MdMADS1, a developmental transcription regulator of fruit ripening, was positively correlated with expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes (MdCHS, MdDFR, MdLDOX, and MdUFGT) in apple skin under ALA treatment. Moreover, overexpression of MdMADS1 enhanced anthocyanin content in transformed apple calli, which was further enhanced by ALA. The anthocyanin content in MdMADS1-silenced calli was less than that in the control with ALA treatment, but higher than that without ALA treatment. These results indicated that MdMADS1 is involved in ALA-induced anthocyanin accumulation. In addition, anthocyanin-related verification in apple calli suggested that the regulation of MdMADS1 on anthocyanin biosynthesis was partially independent of fruit ripening process. Taken together, our findings provide insight into the mechanism how ALA regulates anthocyanin accumulation and add new information on transcriptase regulators of fruit coloration.

5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), a natural and environmentally friendly plant growth regulator, can improve plant tolerance to various environmental stresses. However, whether ALA can improve plant waterlogging tolerance is unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of ALA pretreatment on the waterlogging-induced damage of fig (Ficus carica Linn.) plants, which often suffer from waterlogging stress. ALA pretreatment significantly alleviated stress-induced morphological damage, increased leaf relative water content (RWC), and reduced leaf superoxide anion () production rate and malonaldehyde (MDA) content in fig leaves, indicating ALA mitigates waterlogging stress of fig plants. We further demonstrated that ALA pretreatment largely promoted leaf chlorophyll content, photosynthetic electron transfer ability, and photosynthetic performance index, indicating ALA significantly improves plant photosynthetic efficiency under waterlogging stress. Moreover, ALA pretreatment significantly increased activities of leaf superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD), root vigor, and activities of root alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), indicating ALA also significantly improves antioxidant ability and root function of fig plants under waterlogging stress. Taken together, ALA pretreatment improves waterlogging tolerance of fig plants significantly, and the promoted root respiration, leaf photosynthesis, and antioxidant ability may contribute greatly to this improvement. Our data firstly shows that ALA can improve plant waterlogging tolerance.

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