Yasuomi Tada

Abstract Plant stomata open in response to blue light under a background of red light. Red light induces starch accumulation through guard cell photosynthesis, whereas blue light causes rapid starch degradation via the activation of plasma membrane H+-ATPase through phosphorylation of BLUS1 by phototropins, thus promoting stomatal opening. However, how phototropins mediate starch degradation remains unclear.

1Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1800, USA 2Center for Gene Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan 3Plant Genomics and Breeding Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea 4Bioscience and Biotechnology Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan 5Department of Botany, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan 6Department of Bioscience and Bioinformatics, Kyushu Institute of Technology,...

Abstract Plants initiate specific defense responses by recognizing conserved epitope peptides within the flagellin proteins derived from bacteria. Proteolytic cleavage of epitope peptides from flagellin by plant apoplastic proteases is thought to be crucial for the perception of the epitope by the plant receptor. However, the identity of the plant proteases involved in this process remains unknown.