@article{d5ef5bf5d97c4bbfa3ddfa1a804d38a6,
title = "Sugar transporters for intercellular exchange and nutrition of pathogens",
abstract = "Sugar efflux transporters are essential for the maintenance of animal blood glucose levels, plant nectar production, and plant seed and pollen development. Despite broad biological importance, the identity of sugar efflux transporters has remained elusive. Using optical glucose sensors, we identified a new class of sugar transporters, named SWEETs, and show that at least six out of seventeen Arabidopsis, two out of over twenty rice and two out of seven homologues in Caenorhabditis elegans, and the single copy human protein, mediate glucose transport. Arabidopsis SWEET8 is essential for pollen viability, and the rice homologues SWEET11 and SWEET14 are specifically exploited by bacterial pathogens for virulence by means of direct binding of a bacterial effector to the SWEET promoter. Bacterial symbionts and fungal and bacterial pathogens induce the expression of different SWEET genes, indicating that the sugar efflux function of SWEET transporters is probably targeted by pathogens and symbionts for nutritional gain. The metazoan homologues may be involved in sugar efflux from intestinal, liver, epididymis and mammary cells.",
author = "Chen, {Li Qing} and Hou, {Bi Huei} and Sylvie Lalonde and Hitomi Takanaga and Hartung, {Mara L.} and Qu, {Xiao Qing} and Guo, {Woei Jiun} and Kim, {Jung Gun} and William Underwood and Bhavna Chaudhuri and Diane Chermak and Ginny Antony and White, {Frank F.} and Somerville, {Shauna C.} and Mudgett, {Mary Beth} and Frommer, {Wolf B.}",
note = "Funding Information: The primary goal of pathogens is to access nutrients from their hosts for reproduction. Phytopathogenic bacteria in the genera Pseudomonas and Xanthomonas can live in the intercellular space (apoplasm) of plants, where they acquire carbohydrates for energy and carbon8. Successful pathogens probably co-opt nutrient efflux mechanisms of the host to redirect nutrient flux9. Plants and pathogens engage in an evolutionary tug-of-war, in which the plant limits pathogen access to nutrients and initiates immune responses, whereas the pathogen evolves adaptive strategies to gain access to nutrients and suppress host immunity. Insight into mechanisms used by pathogens to alter plant immunity is emerging. However, the mechanisms that pathogens use to alter host physiology, notably efflux of sugars to support growth, are poorly understood. We hypothesize that sugar efflux transporters are co-opted by pathogens to supply nutrients9. This hypothesis is supported by studies of sugar transfer from wheat leaves to powdery mildew10–12. Pathogen glucose/H1 uptake transporters have been identified13; by contrast, plant sugar efflux mechanisms have remained elusive.",
year = "2010",
month = nov,
day = "25",
doi = "10.1038/nature09606",
language = "English",
volume = "468",
pages = "527--532",
journal = "Nature",
issn = "0028-0836",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "7323",
}