The reduced state of the plastoquinone pool is required for chloroplast-mediated stomatal closure in response to calcium stimulation

Besides their participation in photosynthesis, leaf chloroplasts function in plant responses to stimuli, yet how they direct stimulus-induced stomatal movement remains elusive. Here, we showed that over-reduction of the plastoquinone (PQ) pool by dibromothymoquinone (DBMIB) was closely associated with stomatal closure in plants which required chloroplastic H2O2 generation in the mesophyll. External application of H2O2 reduced the PQ pool, whereas the cell-permeable reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger N-acetylcysteine (NAC) reversed the DBMIB-induced over-reduction of the PQ pool and stomatal closure. Mesophyll chloroplasts are key players of extracellular Ca2+ (Ca-o(2+))-induced stomatal closure, but when treated with either 3-(3',4'-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU) or NAC they failed to facilitate Ca-o(2+)-induced stomatal closure due to the inhibition of chloroplastic H2O2 synthesis in mesophyll. Similarly, the Arabidopsis electron transfer chain-related mutants npq4-1, stn7 and cas-1 exhibited diverse responses to Ca-o(2+) or DBMIB. Transcriptome analysis also demonstrated that the PQ pool signaling pathway shared common responsive genes with the H2O2 signaling pathway. These results implicated a mechanism for chloroplast-mediated stomatal closure involving the generation of mesophyll chloroplastic H2O2 based on the reduced state of the PQ pool, which is calcium-sensing receptor (CAS) and LHCII phosphorylation dependent.