Plant-PATH PhD student publishes first first-author review on sugar transport mechanisms in plants

Published in Current Opinion in Structural Biology, the review was carried out as part of Kasper's PhD research in the group of Bjørn Panyella Pedersen at Aarhus University.

Sugar transporters play a central role in plant growth and development by enabling the long-distance movement of carbohydrates throughout the plant. They are also important for plant responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses. Despite their importance, many aspects of how these transport proteins recognize sugars and move them across cellular membranes remain poorly understood.

In the review, Kasper and his co-authors, fellow Plant-PATH center members Camilla Gottlieb Andersen and Adriana Chrenková, summarize recent structural and biophysical discoveries relating to three major families of plant sugar transporters: Sugar Transport Proteins (STPs), Sucrose Carriers (SUCs), and Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporters (SWEETs). These studies have begun to reveal how both shared and unique molecular features influence substrate recognition and the conformational changes required for transport.

The article also highlights key challenges that remain in the field. For several transporters, complete transport cycles have yet to be resolved, and native substrate-bound structures remain elusive. Addressing these questions will require combining structural, dynamic, and functional approaches to build a more complete picture of how sugar transport occurs at the molecular level.

Such insights could ultimately contribute to the development of crops with improved resilience and productivity by enabling the engineering of transport proteins that optimize carbon allocation and stress responses.

The publication marks an important milestone in Kasper's PhD journey and his first publication as first author.

Read the article:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959440X26000771