Jasmonate is a critical signal that regulates a wide range of physiological processes. Despite recent advances in our understanding of the jasmonate signaling pathway, the relationship between jasmonate signaling and other developmental processes or signaling pathways are still not fully understood. 

Prof. YU Dqiu and his team of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used molecular and genetic approaches to study the role of jasmonate in regulating stomatal development.  

They revealed that jasmonate negatively regulated stomatal development in Arabidopsis cotyledons. They got their research result published online in Plant Physiology.  

Microscopic observations revealed that exogenous jasmonate repressed stomata development, as the number of stomata in cotyledons of Arabidopsis seedlings germinated on medium with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) was reduced. 

Conversely, blocking jasmonate biosynthesis and signaling led to enhanced stomatal development, as the number of stomata increased in cotyledons of jasmonate-related mutants, such as JASMONATE RESISTANT1 (jar1), CORONATINE INSENSITIVE1-2 (coi1-2) and the myc2 myc3 myc4 triple mutant. 

Moreover, they found that jasmonate repressed stomatal development dependently of the MYC transcription factors.  

The MYC2, MYC3, and MYC4 transcription factors play central and redundant roles in jasmonate-mediated processes including stomatal development. 

Their work showed that the jasmonate inhibits stomatal development in Arabidopsis cotyledons. It also showed that MYC transcription factors modulate the expression of SPEECHLESS (SPCH), MUTE, and FAMA to integrate jasmonate signaling and stomatal development.