Identification of the transporter responsible for sucrose accumulation in sugar beet taproots.

Jung B, Ludewig F, Schulz A, Meißner G, Wöstefeld N, Flügge UI, Pommerrenig B, Wirsching P, Sauer N, Koch W, Sommer F, Mühlhaus T, Schroda M, Cuin TA, Graus D, Marten I, Hedrich R, Neuhaus He (2015)

Publication Language: English

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2015

Journal

Nature Plants Nature Publishing Group

Book Volume: 1

Article Number: 14001

DOI: 10.1038/nplants.2014.1

Abstract

Sugar beet provides around one third of the sugar consumed worldwide and serves as a significant source of bioenergy in the form of ethanol. Sucrose accounts for up to 18% of plant fresh weight in sugar beet. Most of the sucrose is concentrated in the taproot, where it accumulates in the vacuoles. Despite 30 years of intensive research, the transporter that facilitates taproot sucrose accumulation has escaped identification. Here, we combine proteomic analyses of the taproot vacuolar membrane, the tonoplast, with electrophysiological analyses to show that the transporter BvTST2.1 is responsible for vacuolar sucrose uptake in sugar beet taproots. We show that BvTST2.1 is a sucrose-specific transporter, and present evidence to suggest that it operates as a proton antiporter, coupling the import of sucrose into the vacuole to the export of protons. BvTST2.1 exhibits a high amino acid sequence similarity to members of the tonoplast monosaccharide transporter family in Arabidopsis, prompting us to rename this group of proteins 'tonoplast sugar transporters'. The identification of BvTST2.1 could help to increase sugar yields from sugar beet and other sugar-storing plants in future breeding programs.

Authors with CRIS profile

Benjamin Pommerrenig Lehrstuhl für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie Petra Wirsching Lehrstuhl für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie Norbert Sauer Lehrstuhl für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie

Involved external institutions

Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg DE Germany (DE) Technische Universität Kaiserslautern DE Germany (DE) Universität zu Köln DE Germany (DE) KWS SAAT SE DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Jung, B., Ludewig, F., Schulz, A., Meißner, G., Wöstefeld, N., Flügge, U.-I.,... Neuhaus, H.e. (2015). Identification of the transporter responsible for sucrose accumulation in sugar beet taproots. Nature Plants, 1. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2014.1

MLA:

Jung, Benjamin, et al. "Identification of the transporter responsible for sucrose accumulation in sugar beet taproots." Nature Plants 1 (2015).

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