Sugar transporters

摘要

A novel class of transporter protein, referred to as SWEET, GLUE or Glü, is disclosed. These transporters provide a novel system for the transportation of sugars across membranes within a cell and between the inside and outside of a cell. Such transporters are useful for understanding and altering the sugar concentration within certain organs of an organism, and within certain organelles within the cell. These transporters are also useful in protecting plants from a pathogen attack.

主权项

1. A method of inhibiting the expression or activity of a SWEET transporter in a plant cell, the method comprising transforming the plant cell with an expression vector, the expression vector comprising a nucleic acid sequence coding for one or more polynucleotides that form a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to inhibit a nucleic acid sequence in the plant cell coding for the SWEET 12 transporter, wherein said dsRNA reduces sugar efflux out of the plant cell, wherein the plant cell is from or in soybean, tomato, alfalfa, potato, pea, wheat or maize, wherein the reduction in efflux of sugar out of the plant cell increases pathogen resistance of the plant cell to Golovinomyces cichoracearum.