Plant SWEET Family of Sugar Transporters: Structure, Evolution and Biological Functions

• Published in: Biomolecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 12; no. 2; p. 205
• Main Authors: Ji, Jialei, Yang, Limei, Fang, Zhiyuan, Zhang, Yangyong, Zhuang, Mu, Lv, Honghao, Wang, Yong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 25.01.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: abiotic stress; Biochemical Phenomena; Biological Transport; Cell membranes; Cytoplasm; Exports; Flowers & plants; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Glucose; Membranes; Metabolism; Nectar; Participation; phloem loading; Physiology; Plant Breeding; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Plants - genetics; Plants - metabolism; plant–pathogen interaction; Prokaryotes; Protein structure; Proteins; Review; Signal transduction; Sucrose; Sugar; sugar transporter; Sugars - metabolism; SWEET; Sweet taste; SWEET; plant–pathogen interaction; sugar transporter; phloem loading; abiotic stress
• ISSN: 2218-273X; 2218-273X
• DOI: 10.3390/biom12020205

The SWEET (sugars will eventually be exported transporter) family was identified as a new class of sugar transporters that function as bidirectional uniporters/facilitators and facilitate the diffusion of sugars across cell membranes along a concentration gradient. SWEETs are found widely in plants and play central roles in many biochemical processes, including the phloem loading of sugar for long-distance transport, pollen nutrition, nectar secretion, seed filling, fruit development, plant–pathogen interactions and responses to abiotic stress. This review focuses on advances of the plant SWEETs, including details about their discovery, characteristics of protein structure, evolution and physiological functions. In addition, we discuss the applications of SWEET in plant breeding. This review provides more in-depth and comprehensive information to help elucidate the molecular basis of the function of SWEETs in plants.