Functional characterization of two new sugar transporter families within the Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS)

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Michael Büttner
• Subject Area: Plant Cell and Developmental Biology
• Term: from 2002 to 2005
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5387959

Our group has almost completely characterized a family of monosaccharide transporters in Arabidopsis (AtSTPs) comprising 14 highly homologous members. For most AtSTPs, we could demonstrate a sink-specific expression and the localisation in the plasmamembrane. Expression in yeast cells showed that most of these transporters accept a broad range of monosaccharide substrates. In addition to the AtSTPs, 6 distinct families of putative sugar transporters can be identified within the Arabidopsis genome. One of these families shows significant homologies to bacterial xylose/H+ symporters, while another family is related to vacuolar transporters and mammalian facilitators. We wish to functionally characterize these two families by investigating the transport properties, the tissue-specific and (sub)cellular localizations as well as the developmental, spatial, and environmental regulation of the individual transporters.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants