Active loading of the phloem with sucrose in leaves is an essential part of the process of supplying non‐photosynthetic tissues with carbon and energy. The transport is protein mediated and coupled to proton‐symport, but so far no sucrose carrier gene has been identified. Using an engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, a cDNA from spinach encoding a sucrose carrier was identified by functional expression. Yeast strains that allow the phenotypic recognition of a sucrose carrier activity were constructed by expressing a cytoplasmic invertase from yeast, or the potato sucrose synthase gene, in a strain unable to transport or grow on sucrose due to a deletion in the SUC2 gene. A spinach cDNA expression library established from the poly(A)+ RNA from source leaves of spinach and cloned in a yeast expression vector yielded transformed yeast clones which were able to grow on media containing sucrose as the sole carbon source. This ability was strictly linked to the presence of the spinach cDNA clone pS21. Analysis of the sucrose uptake process in yeast strains transformed with this plasmid show a pH‐dependent uptake of sucrose with a Km of 1.5 mM, which can be inhibited by maltose, alpha‐phenylglucoside, carbonyl cyanide m‐chlorophenylhydrazone and p‐chloromercuribenzenesulfonic acid. These data are in accordance with measurements using both leaf discs and plasma membrane vesicles from leaves of higher plants. DNA sequence analysis of the pS21 clone reveals the presence of an open reading frame encoding a protein with a molecular mass of 55 kDa. The predicted protein contains several hydrophobic regions which could be assigned to 12 membrane‐spanning regions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Despite the important role of the ammonium ion in metabolism, i.e. as a form of nitrogen that is taken up from the soil by microorganisms and plants, little is known at the molecular level about its transport across biomembranes. Biphasic uptake kinetics have been observed in roots of several plant species. To study such transport processes, a mutant yeast strain that is deficient in two NH4+ uptake systems was used to identify a plant NH4+ transporter. Expression of an Arabidopsis cDNA in the yeast mutant complemented the uptake deficiency. The cDNA AMT1 contains an open reading frame of 501 amino acids and encodes a highly hydrophobic protein with 9‐12 putative membrane spanning regions. Direct uptake measurements show that mutant yeast cells expressing the protein are able to take up [14C]methylamine. Methylamine uptake can be efficiently competed by NH4+ but not by K+. The methylamine uptake is optimal at pH 7 with a Km of 65 microM and a Ki for NH4+ of approximately 10 microM, is energy‐dependent and can be inhibited by protonophores. The plant protein is highly related to an NH4+ transporter from yeast (Marini et al., accompanying manuscript). Sequence homologies to genes of bacterial and animal origin indicate that this type of transporter is conserved over a broad range of organisms. Taken together, the data provide strong evidence that a gene for the plant high affinity NH4+ uptake has been identified.

Sucrose is the principal transport form of assimilates in most plants. In many species, translocation of assimilates from the mesophyll into the phloem for long distance transport is assumed to be carrier mediated. A putative sucrose proton cotransporter cDNA has been isolated from potato and shown to be expressed mainly in the phloem of mature exporting leaves. To study the in vivo role and function of the protein, potato plants were transformed with an antisense construct of the sucrose transporter cDNA under control of the CaMV 35S promoter. Upon maturation of the leaves, five transformants that expressed reduced levels of sucrose transporter mRNA developed local bleaching and curling of leaves. These leaves contained > 20‐fold higher concentrations of soluble carbohydrates and showed a 5‐fold increase in starch content as compared with wild type plants, as expected from a block in export. Transgenic plants with a reduced amount of sucrose carrier mRNA show a dramatic reduction in root development and tuber yield. Maximal photosynthetic activity was reduced at least in the strongly affected transformants. The effects observed in the antisense plants strongly support an apoplastic model for phloem loading, in which the sucrose transporter located at the phloem plasma membrane represents the primary route for sugar uptake into the long distance distribution network.

Patatin is one of the major soluble proteins in potato tubers and is encoded by a multigene family. Based on structural considerations two classes of patatin genes are distinguished. The 5′‐upstream regulatory region of a class I gene contained within a 1.5 kb sequence is essential and sufficient to direct a high level of tuber‐specific gene activity which was on average 100‐ to 1000‐fold higher in tubers as compared to leaf, stem and roots in greenhouse grown transgenic potato plants when fused to the β‐glucuronidase reporter gene. Histochemical analysis revealed this activity to be present in parenchymatic tissue but not in the peripheral phellem cells of transgenic tubers. Furthermore the promoter fragment can be activated in leaves under conditions that simulate the need for the accumulation of starch in storage organs, i.e. high levels of sucrose. The expression is restricted to both mesophyll and epidermal cells in contrast to vascular tissue or hair cells.

The leaf vasculature plays a key role in solute translocation. Veins consist of at least seven distinct cell types, with specific roles in transport, metabolism, and signaling. Little is known about leaf vascular cells, in particular the phloem parenchyma (PP). PP effluxes sucrose into the apoplasm as a basis for phloem loading, yet PP has been characterized only microscopically. Here, we enriched vascular cells from Arabidopsis leaves to generate a single-cell transcriptome atlas of leaf vasculature. We identified at least 19 cell clusters, encompassing epidermis, guard cells, hydathodes, mesophyll, and all vascular cell types, and used metabolic pathway analysis to define their roles. Clusters comprising PP cells were enriched for transporters, including SWEET11 and SWEET12 sucrose and UmamiT amino acid efflux carriers. We provide evidence that PP development occurs independently from ALTERED PHLOEM DEVELOPMENT, a transcription factor required for phloem differentiation. PP cells have a unique pattern of amino acid metabolism activity distinct from companion cells (CCs), explaining differential distribution/metabolism of amino acids in veins. The kinship relation of the vascular clusters is strikingly similar to the vein morphology, except for a clear separation of CC from the other vascular cells including PP. In summary, our single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis provides a wide range of information into the leaf vasculature and the role and relationship of the leaf cell types.

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In leaves, sucrose uptake kinetics involve high- and low-affinity components. A family of low- and high-affinity sucrose transporters (SUT) was identified. SUT1 serves as a high-affinity transporter essential for phloem loading and long-distance transport in solanaceous species. SUT4 is a low-affinity transporter with an expression pattern overlapping that of SUT1. Both SUT1 and SUT4 localize to enucleate sieve elements of tomato. New sucrose transporter-like proteins, named SUT2, from tomato and Arabidopsis contain extended cytoplasmic domains, thus structurally resembling the yeast sugar sensors SNF3 and RGT2. Features common to these sensors are low codon bias, environment of the start codon, low expression, and lack of detectable transport activity. In contrast to LeSUT1, which is induced during the sink-to-source transition of leaves, SUT2 is more highly expressed in sink than in source leaves and is inducible by sucrose. LeSUT2 protein colocalizes with the low- and high-affinity sucrose transporters in sieve elements of tomato petioles, indicating that multiple SUT mRNAs or proteins travel from companion cells to enucleate sieve elements. The SUT2 gene maps on chromosome V of potato and is linked to a major quantitative trait locus for tuber starch content and yield. Thus, the putative sugar sensor identified colocalizes with two other sucrose transporters, differs from them in kinetic properties, and potentially regulates the relative activity of low- and high-affinity sucrose transport into sieve elements.

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