Sugar Sensing and Signaling in Plants

作者：Filip Rolland, Brandon d. Moore, Jen Sheen · 发表于：The Plant Cell · 年份：2002 · DOI：10.1105/tpc.010455 · 被引用次数：1190 · 研究领域：Plant nutrient uptake and metabolism、Plant Molecular Biology Research、Plant Physiology and Cultivation Studies

In addition to their essential roles as substrates in carbon and energy metabolism and in polymer biosynthesis, sugars have important hormone-like functions as primary messengers in signal transduction. The pivotal role of sugars as signaling molecules is well illustrated by the variety of sugar sensing and signaling mechanisms discovered in free-living microorganisms such as bacteria and yeast (Stulke and Hillen, 1999; Rolland et al., 2001). For such unicellular organisms, nutrient availability is the main extracellular factor controlling growth and metabolism. The role of nutrients as regulatory molecules has come to be appreciated only recently in mammals despite extensive previous research on Glc homeostasis and diabetes (Hanson, 2000; Rolland et al., 2001). In plants, sugar production through photosynthesis is a vital process, and sugar status modulates and coordinates internal regulators and environmental cues that govern growth and development (Koch, 1996; Sheen et al., 1999; Smeekens, 2000). Although the regulatory effect of sugars on photosynthetic activity and plant metabolism has long been recognized, the concept of sugars as central signaling molecules is relatively novel. Recent progress has begun to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying sugar sensing and signaling in plants, including the demonstration of hexokinase (HXK) as a Glc sensor that modulates gene expression and multiple plant hormone-signaling pathways (Sheen et al., 1999; Smeekens, 2000). Analys...