A structural breakdown of key plant and fungal sugar transporters

Abstract

During her PhD studies, Camilla Gottlieb Andersen researched how sugar transport proteins in plants facilitate long distance transport of photosynthetically derived sugars during homeostasis and infection. She acquired structural information of sugar transporters from plants and a fungal maize pathogen using X-ray crystallography and cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM). This structural data was complemented by transport assays conducted in vivo and in vitro to characterize the sugar transporters and to describe how plant and fungal sugar transporters recognize and discriminate between different sugars.

Her findings provide a structural framework for a better understanding of how long-distance sugar transport is mediated in plants and how biotrophic fungal pathogens compete with their hosts for sugar at the molecular level.