Journal Article

Molecular Identification and Physiological Characterization of a Novel Monosaccharide Transporter from Arabidopsis Involved in Vacuolar Sugar Transport

Trentmann, Oliver, Tjaden, Joachim, Schmidt, Ulrike, Martinoia, Enrico, Feifer, Ingmar, Lohr, Christian, Meyer, Stefan, Wormit, Alexandra, Neuhaus, H. Ekkehard

2006

Overview

The tonoplast monosaccharide transporter (TMT) family comprises three isoforms in Arabidopsis thaliana, and TMT-green fluorescent protein fusion proteins are targeted to the vacuolar membrane. TMT promoter-β-glucuronidase plants revealed that the TONOPLAST MONOSACCHARIDE TRANSPORTER1 (TMT1) and TMT2 genes exhibit a tissue- and cell type-specific expression pattern, whereas TMT3 is only weakly expressed. TMT1 and TMT2 expression is induced by drought, salt, and cold treatments and by sugar. During cold adaptation, tmt knockout lines accumulated less glucose and fructose compared with wild-type plants, whereas no differences were observed for sucrose. Cold adaptation of wild-type plants substantially promoted glucose uptake into isolated leaf mesophyll vacuoles. Glucose uptake into isolated vacuoles was inhibited by NH₄⁺, fructose, and phlorizin, indicating that transport is energy-dependent and that both glucose and fructose were taken up by the same carrier. Glucose import into vacuoles from two cold-induced tmt1 knockout lines or from triple knockout plants was substantially lower than into corresponding wild-type vacuoles. Monosaccharide feeding into leaf discs revealed the strongest response to sugar in tmt1 knockout lines compared with wild-type plants, suggesting that TMT1 is required for cytosolic glucose homeostasis. Our results indicate that TMT1 is involved in vacuolar monosaccharide transport and plays a major role during stress responses.

• Publisher: American Society of Plant Biologists
• Subject: Amino Acid Sequence / Arabidopsis / Arabidopsis - cytology / Arabidopsis - drug effects / Arabidopsis - genetics / Arabidopsis - metabolism / Arabidopsis Proteins / Arabidopsis Proteins - chemistry / Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics / Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism / Arabidopsis thaliana / Biological Transport / Biological Transport - drug effects / chemistry / cold / Cold Temperature / cytology / DNA, Bacterial / Drought / drug effects / fructose / Gene Expression Profiling / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - drug effects / genes / genetics / Glucose / homeostasis / Homozygote / Leaves / mesophyll / Messenger RNA / metabolism / Molecular Sequence Data / Monosaccharide Transport Proteins / Monosaccharide Transport Proteins - chemistry / Monosaccharide Transport Proteins - genetics / Monosaccharide Transport Proteins - metabolism / Monosaccharides / Monosaccharides - metabolism / Monosaccharides - pharmacology / Mutation / Mutation - genetics / Organ Specificity / Organ Specificity - drug effects / pharmacology / Plant cells / Plant Leaves / Plant Leaves - drug effects / Plant Leaves - metabolism / Plants / Protein Transport / Protein Transport - drug effects / Protoplasts / Protoplasts - cytology / Protoplasts - drug effects / RNA / RNA, Messenger / RNA, Messenger - genetics / RNA, Messenger - metabolism / salts / Sequence Alignment / Sequence Analysis, Protein / stress response / sucrose / Sugar / Sugars / Tonoplast / transporters / Vacuoles / Vacuoles - drug effects / Vacuoles - metabolism