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Hexokinase as a sugar sensor in higher plants

J C Jang¹, P León, L Zhou

¹Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114, USA.

|January 1, 1997

Summary

Higher plants use hexokinase (HXK) to sense sugars. Manipulating HXK levels in Arabidopsis altered sugar sensitivity, revealing its crucial role in plant sugar responses.

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Area of Science:

Plant biology
Molecular biology
Biochemistry

Background:

Plant sugar recognition mechanisms remain poorly understood.
Hexokinase (HXK) is the initial enzyme in hexose assimilation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of hexokinase (HXK) as a potential sugar sensor in plants.
To characterize the effects of altered HXK activity on plant sugar responses.

Main Methods:

Generated transgenic Arabidopsis plants with suppressed (antisense) and overexpressed AtHXK genes.
Analyzed sugar sensitivity and gene expression patterns in transgenic lines.
Introduced and assessed the function of yeast hexokinase 2 (YHXK2) in transgenic plants.

Main Results:

Antisense AtHXK plants showed reduced sugar sensitivity (hyposensitive).
Overexpression of AtHXK led to increased sugar sensitivity (hypersensitive).
Altered HXK levels impacted seedling development and gene regulation.
Yeast YHXK2 expression conferred a dominant negative effect, decoupling HXK activity from sugar sensitivity.

Conclusions:

Hexokinase (HXK) functions as a critical sugar sensor in higher plants.
HXK possesses a dual role, encompassing both catalytic and regulatory functions.
The regulatory function of HXK in sugar sensing is plant-specific and not conserved with yeast.

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