The sugar transporter inventory of tomato: genome-wide identification and expression analysis.
The mobility of sugars between source and sink tissues in plants depends on sugar transport proteins. Studying the corresponding genes allows the manipulation of the sink strength of developing fruits, thereby improving fruit quality for human consumption. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is both a major horticultural crop and a model for the development of fleshy fruits. In this article we provide a comprehensive inventory of tomato sugar transporters, including the SUCROSE TRANSPORTER family, the SUGAR TRANSPORTER PROTEIN family, the SUGAR FACILITATOR PROTEIN family, the POLYOL/MONOSACCHARIDE TRANSPORTER family, the INOSITOL TRANSPORTER family, the PLASTIDIC GLUCOSE TRANSLOCATOR family, the TONOPLAST MONOSACCHARIDE TRANSPORTER family and the VACUOLAR GLUCOSE TRANSPORTER family. Expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing and phylogenetic analyses established a nomenclature for all analyzed tomato sugar transporters. In total we identified 52 genes in tomato putatively encoding sugar transporters. The expression of 29 sugar transporter genes in vegetative tissues and during fruit development was analyzed. Several sugar transporter genes were expressed in a tissue- or developmental stage-specific manner. This information will be helpful to better understand source to sink movement of photoassimilates in tomato. Identification of fruit-specific sugar transporters might be a first step to find novel genes contributing to tomato fruit sugar accumulation.
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601 JapanThese authors contributed equally to this work.
Stefan
S
Reuscher
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601 JapanThese authors contributed equally to this work.
Masahito
M
Akiyama
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601 Japan.
Tomohide
T
Yasuda
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601 Japan.
Haruko
H
Makino
Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, Gakuen-cho, Sakai, 599-8531 Japan.
Koh
K
Aoki
Kazusa DNA Research Institute, Kazusa-kamatari, Kisarazu, 292-0818 Japan.
Daisuke
D
Shibata
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601 Japan shira@agr.nagoya-uni.ac.jp.
Katsuhiro
K
Shiratake
D001483:Base Sequence; D001692:Biological Transport; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D005638:Fruit / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins
EST; Fruit development; Gene expression analysis; Sugar transporter; Tomato