Abstract: We studied the perception of plant cells to osmotic stress that leads to the accumulation of abscisic acid (ABA) in stressed Arabidopsis thaliana L. cells. A significant difference was found between protoplasts and cells in terms of their responses to osmotic stress and ABA biosynthesis, implying that cell wall and/or cell wall-plasma membrane interaction are essential in identifying osmotic stress. Western blotting and immunofluorescence localization experiments, using polyclonal antibody against human integrin b1, revealed the existence of a protein similar to the integrin protein of animals in the suspension-cultured cells located in the plasma membrane fraction. Treatment with a synthetic pentapeptide, Gly-Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser (GRGDS), which contains an RGD domain and interacts specifically with integrin protein and thus blocks the cell wall-plasma membrane interaction, significantly inhibited osmotic stress-induced ABA biosynthesis in cells, but not in protoplasts. These results demonstrate that cell wall and/or cell wall-plasma membrane interaction mediated by integrin-like proteins played important roles in osmotic stress-induced ABA biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Key words: abscisic acid, Arabidopsis thaliana, cell wall-plasma membrane interaction, integrin-like protein, osmotic stress.