Regulation of sugar transporters as a defense strategy in plants

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K18656
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Plant protection science
• Research Institution: The University of Tokushima
• Principal Investigator: Yamada Kohji 徳島大学, 大学院社会産業理工学研究部生物資源産業学域, 助教 (40587672)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 植物-病原体間相互作用 / 糖吸収 / 植物免疫

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Pathogens acquire sugars as a main carbon source from host plants. However, it remained unknown whether plants attempt to prevent pathogen’s sugar gain, for example, by retrieving extracellular sugars. Here, we found that Arabidopsis plants lacking sugar transporters were more susceptible to pathogenic bacteria, and sugar uptake activity is enhanced during immune activation in Arabidopsis. In addition, we demonstrated that the activity of STP13, a sugar transporter, was regulated via phosphorylation by a pathogen-recognition receptor complex. In this study, we revealed that plants exhibit a defense strategy using sugar transporters to reduce extracellular sugars during pathogen infection.

Free Research Field

植物分子生理学