Researchers Study Sorghum's SWEET Gene Family
June 29, 2016http://biotechnologyforbiofuels.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13068-016-0546-6
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SWEET is a newly identified family of sugar transporters. Although they have been characterized, there is still very little knowledge available on sucrose accumulation in stems. To understand the expression of SWEET genes of sorghum, the team led by Hiroshi Mizuno from the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Japan analyzed and compared amino acid sequences of sweet sorghum and grain sorghum.
The team identified 23 SWEET genes in the sorghum genome. SbSWEET8-1 was found to be highly expressed in leaves and is involved in the efflux of photosynthesized sucrose from the leaf.
In the stem, SbSWEET4-3 was uniquely highly expressed. SbSWEET4-1, SbSWEET4-2, and SbSWEET4-3 were thought to have the same function but differ in tissue specificities. This suggests that SbSWEET4-3 is a sugar transporter with specific roles in the stem. A SWEET4-3 ortholog was also found in the maize chromosome, but not in rice. This could mean that it was copied after the branching of sorghum and maize from rice.
Meanwhile, analysis of the other SWEET genes revealed that SbSWEET2-1 and SbSWEET7-1 are involved in seed development, while SbSWEET9-3 was highly expressed in the panicle and is essential for pollen viability.
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