Fluorescent Biosensors for Quantifying SWEET Transport | AIChE

Fluorescent Biosensors for Quantifying SWEET Transport

Authors 

Park, J. - Presenter, Georgia Institute of Technology
Cheung, L., Georgia Institute of Technology
Sugars Will Eventually be Transported (SWEETs) are membrane transporters involved in phloem loading, pathogen infection, and nectar secretion. SWEETs are thus attractive targets to engineer high-yielding and pathogen-resistant crops. The development of computational models integrating SWEETs would provide a better understanding of these physiological processes. Furthermore, they will give us valuable insight into strategies for increasing yield. Some cellular processes of high interest are long-distance and transmembrane sugar transport. To develop these models, we need quantitative, real-time, and spatially resolved data of sugar transport. Fluorescent biosensors allow us to collect such data in planta non-invasively.

In this

work, we made a fluorescent biosensor quantifying SWEET activity and developed an accompanying transport model. SWEETs are shown to undergo conformational shifts in their transport cycle. To measure this translocation process, we developed a mathematical framework to interpret sensor data as conformational changes. We accordingly developed a kinetic transport model using these measurements. From our model results, we affirm SWEET1 to be a low-affinity transporter and suggest the carrier behaves symmetrically.