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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Role of tomato hexose kinases

David Granot
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Institute of Plant Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel. Email: granot@agri.gov.il

B This paper originates from a presentation at the 8th International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology, Adelaide, Australia, August 2006.

Functional Plant Biology 34(6) 564-570 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP06207
Submitted: 11 September 2006  Accepted: 10 November 2006   Published: 1 June 2007

Abstract

Hexose phosphorylation is an essential step of sugar metabolism. Only two classes of glucose and fructose phosphorylating enzymes, hexokinases (HXK) and fructokinases (FRK), have been found in plants. Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is the only plant species from which four HXK and four FRK genes have been identified and characterised. One HXK and one FRK isozyme are located within plastids. The other three HXK isozymes are associated with the mitochondria, and the other three FRK isozymes are dispersed in the cytosol. These differences in location suggest that the cytoplasmic HXK and FRK have distinct roles to play in sugar metabolism. The specific roles of each of the HXK and FRK genes have been investigated using transgenic plants with modified expression of the genes. Sugar signalling effects were obtained with modified expression of the mitochondria associated HXK. In contrast, modified expression of the cytosolic FRK affected fructose metabolism rather than sugar signalling. Future research efforts will aim to determining the roles of specific hexose phosphorylating enzymes in tomato plants, the source of the hexose monomers to be phosphorylated, and their intracellular trafficking route.

Additional keywords: fructokinase, green fluorescent protein, hexokinase, hexose phosphorylation, intracellular localisation, Lycopersicon esculentum.


Acknowledgements

This research was supported by The Israel Science Foundation grant No. 890/06 and by research grants No. IS-3897–06 and CA-9100–06 from BARD, the United States–Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund.


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