Journal article
A Cascade of Sequentially Expressed Sucrose Transporters in the Seed Coat and Endosperm Provides Nutrition for the Arabidopsis Embryo
Li-Qing Chen, I Winnie Lin, Xiao-Qing Qu, Davide Sosso, Heather E McFarlane, Alejandra Londono, A Lacey Samuels, Wolf B Frommer
PLANT CELL | AMER SOC PLANT BIOLOGISTS | Published : 2015
Abstract
Developing plant embryos depend on nutrition from maternal tissues via the seed coat and endosperm, but the mechanisms that supply nutrients to plant embryos have remained elusive. Sucrose, the major transport form of carbohydrate in plants, is delivered via the phloem to the maternal seed coat and then secreted from the seed coat to feed the embryo. Here, we show that seed filling in Arabidopsis thaliana requires the three sucrose transporters SWEET11, 12, and 15. SWEET11, 12, and 15 exhibit specific spatiotemporal expression patterns in developing seeds, but only a sweet11;12;15 triple mutant showed severe seed defects, which include retarded embryo development, reduced seed weight, and re..
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Awarded by Department of Energy
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Heather Cartwright for confocal imaging advice. We thank David Ehrhardt, Alexander Jones, and Lily Cheung for critical reading of the article. We also thank Xiaobo Li for the help with lipid content measurement. Technical assistance of the UBC Bioimaging Facility is gratefully acknowledged. This work was made possible by grants to W.B.F. from the Department of Energy (DE-FG02- 04ER15542) and from the Carnegie Institution of Canada to W.B.F. and A.L.S.