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Title: CLONING OF ATSUT6/ATSUC6, A MEMBER OF A NEW SUB-CLASS OF SUCROSE TRANSPORTER FROM ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA

Author
item HARRINGTON, GREGORY - PLANTBIO UOI URBANA
item BUSH, DANIEL

Submitted to: Plant Physiology Supplement
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/8/2002
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Carbon fixed in source tissues of higher plants by photosynthesis is generally partitioned to heterotrophic sink organs through the vascular tissue in the form of sucrose. Plasma membrane sucrose transporters play key roles in phloem-loading and post phloem uptake of sucrose. A new member of the Arabidopsis thaliana sucrose transporter gene-family has been cloned, AtSUT6/AtSUC6, from the Landsberg erecta ecotype using an RT-PCR strategy. The open reading frame for this gene is 1.4 kb long, coding for a 53- kDa protein. This protein has 87 percent or greater identity to three other putative sucrose transporters in the Arabidopsis genome. It has approximately 75 percent identities to AtSUC1 and AtSUC2 and is truncated at the C-terminal end relative to these two proteins. The encoded protein is predicted to have 12 potential transmembrane helix domains. RT-PCR analysis indicates that this gene is very weakly expressed in rosette leaves. We are exploring mechanisms regulating expression of this putative transporter and, in order to test the biochemical properties of this protein, we are attempting to express it in yeast. Moreover, we have obtained a knockout mutant for this transporter and are analyzing the phenotype of these plants with the aim of defining the functional significance of this transporter in plant growth and development.