Sugar pump in plants identified
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - 17:30
in Biology & Nature
Plants must supply their various tissues with the carbohydrates they produce through photosynthesis in the leaves. However, they do not have a muscular pump like the human heart to help transport this vital fuel. Instead, they use pump proteins in their cell membranes for this purpose. Together with colleagues from the Carnegie Institution for Science in California, Alisdair Fernie from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam has identified a hitherto unknown protein in the carbohydrate transport chain. The researchers' discovery could help to protect plants against pests and increase harvest yields.