Impaired phloem loading in zmsweet13a,b,c sucrose transporter triple knock-out mutants in Zea mays

Authors

Margaret Bezrutczyk, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf
Thomas Hartwig, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf
Marc Horschman, Carnegie Institution of Science
Si Nian Char, Iowa State University
Jinliang Yang, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Bing Yang, Iowa State University
Wolf B. Frommer, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf
Davide Sosso, Carnegie Institution of Science

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

New Phytologist (2018) 218: 594–603

Comments

Copyright 2018 The Authors

This is an open access article

doi: 10.1111/nph.15021

Abstract

Crop yield is critical for human nutrition, yet the underlying machinery that ultimately determines yield potential is still not understood. Crop productivity under ideal conditions is determined by the efficiency with which plants intercept light, convert it into chemical energy, translocate photosynthates and convert these to storage products in harvestable organs (Zhu et al., 2010). In many crops, sucrose is the primary form for translocation inside the conduit (i.e. the phloem). A combination of SWEETmediated efflux from phloem parenchyma and subsequent secondary active sucrose import by SUT sucrose/H+ symporters is thought to create the driving force for pressure gradient-driven phloem transport and retrieval of sucrose leaking along the translocation path (Chen et al., 2015a).