How sweet it is: identification of vacuolar sucrose transporters.

Vacuoles have diverse functions within all plant cells. Vacuoles get rid of wastes, accumulate nutrients, and regulate pressure within a cell. They are also known to store sugars. Many of the compounds within vacuoles are actively transported across the tonoplast membrane against a concentration gradient via transporters. The identification of transporters involved in vacuolar Suc transport was the focus of the study by Endler et al. (2006) titled ‘‘Identification of a Vacuolar Sucrose Transporter in Barley and Arabidopsis Mesophyll Cells by a Tonoplast Proteomic Approach.’’ This article appeared in the May 2006 issue, and as of June 2009 it has garnered 44 citations.