Plants make and use sugars . Since food, clothing, shelter and medicine for society depends heavily on this fundamental process, it is important to understand how plants control the timing and effort of sugar synthesis and of sugar usage. First and foremost to understand is how plant cells sense the amount of sugar outside their cells to signal to the intracellular machinery to accommodate this level. The PI showed that a cell surface protein called AtRGS1 is a strong candidate for the sugar receptor. Inside the cell, AtRGS1 controls the activity of a sugar transporter called SGB1. Both AtRGS1 and SGB1 move between the cell surface to intercellular compartments when the extracellular sugar level changes. This project addresses the purpose of this molecular movement within the cell and will test the hypothesis that this movement is critical for sugar sensing. AtRGS1 is likely to become the first sugar receptor discovered for plants and animals, it is the first member of an unusual type of cell surface receptor, and its unusual nature purport a novel sensing mechanism. In addition to the direct impact this will have on society, agriculture and general knowledge of the basic mechanisms in cell biology, the project will result in the training of one postdoctoral and one predoctoral student, a life science technician, and a number of undergraduates. Finally, special effort will be made toward building a teaching module for high school biology students. This module will introduce the concept of differential gene expression, relating it to the identity differences underlying cell types of the human body and human traits.
Plants make and use sugars . Since food, clothing, shelter and medicine for society depends heavily on this fundamental process, it is important for us to understand how plants control the timing and effort of sugar synthesis and of sugar usage. First and foremost to understand is how plant cells sense the amount of sugar outside their cells to signal to the intracellular machinery to accommodate this level. We showed that a cell surface protein called AtRGS1 is a strong candidate for the sugar receptor. Inside the cell, AtRGS1 controls the activity of a sugar transporter called SGB1. Both AtRGS1 and SGB1 move between the cell surface to intercellular compartments when the extracellular sugar level changes. This project addressed the purpose of this molecular movement within the cell and will test the hypothesis that this movement is critical for sugar sensing. AtRGS1 is likely to become the first sugar receptor discovered for plants and animals, it is the first member of an unusual type of cell surface receptor, and its unusual nature purport a novel sensing mechanism. In addition to the direct impact we made to our society, agriculture and general knowledge of the basic mechanisms in cell biology, the project resulted in the training of many postdoctoral and one predoctoral students, a life science technician, and a large number of undergraduates.
