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Uridine diphosphate‐glucosyltransferases (UGTs) maintain abscisic acid (ABA) homeostasis in Arabidopsis thaliana by converting ABA to abscisic acid‐glucose ester (ABA‐GE). UGT71C5 plays an important role in the generation of ABA‐GE. Abscisic acid receptors are crucial upstream components of the ABA signaling pathway, but how UGTs and ABA receptors function together to modulate ABA levels is unknown. Here, we demonstrated that the ABA receptors RCAR12/13 and UGT71C5 maintain ABA homeostasis in Arabidopsis following rehydration under drought stress. Biochemical analyses show that UGT71C5 directly interacted with RCAR8/12/13 in yeast cells, and the interactions between UGT71C5 and RCAR12/13 were enhanced by ABA treatment. Enzyme activity analysis showed that ABA‐GE contents were significantly elevated in the presence of RCAR12 or RCAR13, suggesting that these ABA receptors enhance the activity of UGT71C5. Determination of the content of ABA and ABA‐GE in Arabidopsis following rehydration under drought stress revealed that ABA‐GE contents were significantly higher in Arabidopsis plants overexpressing RCAR12 and RCAR13 than in non‐transformed plants and plants overexpressing RCAR11 following rehydration under drought stress. These observations suggest that RCAR12 and RCAR13 enhance the activity of UGT71C5 to glycosylate excess ABA into ABA‐GE following rehydration under drought stress, representing a rapid mechanism for regulating plant growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a vital phytohormone that accumulates in response to various biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as plant growth. In Arabidopsis thaliana, there are 14 members of the ABA receptor family, which are key positive regulators involved in ABA signaling. Besides reduced drought stress tolerance, the quadruple and sextuple mutants (pyr1pyl1pyl2pyl4 (1124) and pyr1pyl1pyl2pyl4pyl5pyl8 (112458) show abnormal growth phenotypes, such as decreases in yield and height, under non-stress conditions. However, it remains unknown whether ABA receptors mediate ABA signaling to regulate plant growth and development. Here, we showed the primary metabolite profiles of 1124, 112458 and wild-type (WT) plants grown under normal conditions. The metabolic changes were significantly different between ABA receptor mutants and WT. Guanosine, for the biosynthesis of cyclic guanosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cGMP), is an important second messenger that acts to regulate the level of ABA. In addition, other amino acids were increased in the 112458 mutant, including proline. These results, together with phenotype analysis, indicated that ABA receptors are involved in ABA signaling to modulate metabolism and plant growth under normal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]