Abstract

Plasmodesmata act as key elements in intercellular communication, coordinating processes related to plant growth, development and responses to environmental stresses. While many of the developmental, biotic and abiotic signals are primarily perceived at the plasma membrane (PM) by receptor proteins, plasmodesmata also cluster receptor-like activities and whether or not these two pathways interact is currently unknown.\n\nHere we show that specific PM-located Leucine-Rich-Repeat Receptor-Like-Kinases (LRR-RLKs), KIN7 and IMK2, which under optimal growth conditions are absented from plasmodesmata, rapidly relocate and cluster to the pores in response to osmotic stress. This process is remarkably fast, it is not a general feature of PM-associated proteins and is independent of sterol- and sphingolipid-membrane composition. Focusing on KIN7, previously reported to be involved in stress responses, we show that relocalisation upon mannitol depends on KIN7 phosphorylation. Loss-of-function mutation in KIN7 induces delay in lateral root (LR) development and the mutant is affected in the root response to mannitol stress. Callose-mediated plasmodesmata regulation is known to regulate LR development. We found that callose levels are reduced in kin7 mutant background with a root phenotype resembling ectopic expression of PdBG1, an enzyme that degrades callose at the pores. Both the LR and callose phenotypes can be complemented by expression of KIN7 -wild-type and -phosphomimic variants but not by KIN7 phosphodead mutant which fails to relocalise at plasmodesmata. Together the data indicate that re-organisation of RLKs to plasmodesmata is important for the regulation of callose and LR development as part of the plant response to osmotic stress.