FAMA is an essential component for the differentiation of two distinct cell types, myrosin cells and guard cells, in Arabidopsis.

Brassicales plants, including Arabidopsis thaliana, have an ingenious two-compartment defense system, which sequesters myrosinase from the substrate glucosinolate and produces a toxic compound when cells are damaged by herbivores. Myrosinase is stored in vacuoles of idioblast myrosin cells. The molecular mechanism that regulates myrosin cell development remains elusive. Here, we identify the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor FAMA as an essential component for myrosin cell development along Arabidopsis leaf veins. FAMA is known as a regulator of stomatal development. We detected FAMA expression in myrosin cell precursors in leaf primordia in addition to stomatal lineage cells. FAMA deficiency caused defects in myrosin cell development and in the biosynthesis of myrosinases THIOGLUCOSIDE GLUCOHYDROLASE1 (TGG1) and TGG2. Conversely, ectopic FAMA expression conferred myrosin cell characteristics to hypocotyl and root cells, both of which normally lack myrosin cells. The FAMA interactors ICE1/SCREAM and its closest paralog SCREAM2/ICE2 were essential for myrosin cell development. DNA microarray analysis identified 32 candidate genes involved in myrosin cell development under the control of FAMA. This study provides a common regulatory pathway that determines two distinct cell types in leaves: epidermal guard cells and inner-tissue myrosin cells.