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Title: AMINO ACID TRANSPORTERS IN PLANTS

Author
item Ortiz Lopez, Adriana
item CHANG, H.-C. - PLANT BIOLOGY UOFI URBANA
item BUSH, DANIEL

Submitted to: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Although plants are photosynthetic organisms, many harvested tissues are nonphotosynthetic and, therefore, these organs must import sugars and amino acids to grow. Generally, inorganic nitrogen from the soil is incorporated into amino acids in leaves and then amino acids are transported to the edible parts of the plant such as fruits, grains, and tubers. Imported amino acids are essential not only to support growth and development of the harvested tissues, but they also determine the nutritional value of edible tissues for humans and live stock. One strategy for enhancing the nutritional value of some crops is to alter the amount of specific amino acids transported to harvested tissues. This paper described recent advances in dissecting the physiological and molecular complexity of plant amino acid transporters. This synthesis of a complex literature will be used by academic and industry scientists to develop new methods to modify the nutritional value of harvested tissue by altering amino acid transport activity.

Technical Abstract: One of the defining features of multicellular growth is the need to partition resources among organ systems that specialize in diverse biological processes. Many of these organs are composed of heterotrophic tissues systems that must import amino acids to support growth and development. The transport and allocation of amino acids between sites of primary assimilation and import-dependent tissues are essential for plant growth, and amino acid transporters play key roles in mediating this complex process. Our understanding of plant amino acid transporters has advanced considerably over the last ten years. Initially, purified membrane vesicles and imposed proton electrochemical potential differences were used to describe the basic transport properties and bioenergetics of several transporters. Then, the first transporter genes were cloned. With cDNA clones in hand, researchers have used transgenic plants and heterologous expression to investigate every aspect of transporter biology, ranging from dissecting the physiology of a given transporter to identifying the amino acid residues that contribute to the transport reaction. This review described recent advances in dissecting the physiological and molecular complexity of amino acid transporters in plant growth.