title: Plant sucrose transporters from a biophysical point of view.
abstract: The majority of higher plants use sucrose as their main mobile carbohydrate. Proton-driven sucrose transporters play a crucial role in cell-to-cell and long-distance distribution of sucrose throughout the plant. A very negative plant membrane potential and the ability of sucrose transporters to accumulate sucrose concentrations of more than 1 M indicate that plants evolved transporters with unique structural and functional features. The knowledge about the transport mechanism and structural/functional domains of these nano-machines is, however, still fragmentary. In this review, the current knowledge about the biophysical properties of plant sucrose transporters is summarized and discussed.
authors.affiliation: Julius-von-Sachs Institute, Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics, University Würzburg, Julius-von-Sachs Platz 2, D-97082 Würzburg, Germany. geiger@botanik.uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Dietmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Geiger
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000378:metabolism; D027981:Symporters / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; D015221:Potassium Channels; D027981:Symporters; C078729:sucrose transport protein, plant