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Cell biology

Raiding the sweet shop

Nature volume 468, pages 510–511 (2010)Cite this article

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A type of sugar transporter has been discovered that exports glucose from cells. In plants, these transporters are targeted by disease-causing microbes that divert sugar production for their own use. See Article p.527

Sweetening nectar, maintaining blood sugar levels and producing milk — these are just some of the many processes that require living cells to export sugar. It comes as a surprise, therefore, that until now the identity of the proteins responsible for sugar export has been unclear. On page 527 of this issue, Chen et al.1 describe a family of sugar transporters, called SWEETs, that are essential for moving glucose between cells in both plants and animals. The importance of these transporters is highlighted by the fact that they are selectively targeted by pathogenic fungi and bacteria that plunder sugar from living plants.

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Figure 1: Pathogen exploitation of plant SWEET genes.

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  1. Nicholas J. Talbot is at the School of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK. n.j.talbot@exeter.ac.uk ,

    Nicholas J. Talbot

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  1. Nicholas J. Talbot
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Talbot, N. Raiding the sweet shop. Nature 468, 510–511 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/468510a

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