Molecular characterization following expression analysis of sugar transporters in passion fruit to explore their...

The genome-wide analysis identified 55 PeSTs (Passiflora edulis sugar transporters), having significant variations in exon-intron structure, protein motifs, cis-regulatory elements, and syntenic relationships, which might reveal their functional diversity. Phylogenetic analysis classified these genes into eight subfamilies, where the STP subfamily showed significant expansion during the process of evolution. In molecular docking, the strongest binding affinities in Glu-PePLT4, Fru-PeSTP10, Gal-PePLT4, and Suc-PeTMT2 complexes might reveal their substrate specificity and transport kinetics. Following that, the molecular dynamics simulation supported the stability of the docked complexes. The presence of significant light, hormone, and stress regulatory cis-elements among the PeST promoters might reveal their hormone and stress regulatory functions. The highest homologous pairs (62) of PeSTs with M. domestica during synteny analysis among five plant genomes might guide their duplication pattern across the genomes. RNA-seq-based expression analysis, following real-time qRT-PCR mediated validation of upregulated expression of PeERD6L-1, PeSTP6, PeSTP8, PePLT1, and PeTMT5 genes under drought, salt, cold, and heat stresses, might guide their potential regulatory roles in tolerance to the respective stresses. Significant protein-protein and protein-TFs interactions in PeSTs might reveal their inter-regulatory roles in transporting sugars. These critical findings might guide the plant biologists in developing a synthetic biology-guided circuit enabled multiple abiotic stress-tolerant high-sugar passion fruit.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-026-04707-0.