Post-translational regulation of sucrose transporters by direct protein–protein interactions

Sucrose transporters are essential membrane proteins for the allocation of carbon resources in higher plants and protein–protein interactions play a crucial role in the post-translational regulation of sucrose transporters affecting affinity, transport capacity, oligomerization, localization, and trafficking. Systematic screening for protein interactors using sucrose transporters as bait proteins helped identifying several proteins binding to sucrose transporters from apple, Arabidopsis, potato, or tomato using the split ubiquitin system. This mini-review summarizes known sucrose transporter-interacting proteins and their potential function in plants. Not all of the identified interaction partners are postulated to be located at the plasma membrane, but some are predicted to be endoplasmic reticulum-residing proteins such as a protein disulfide isomerase and members of the cytochrome b5 family. Many of the SUT1-interacting proteins are secretory proteins or involved in metabolism. Identification of actin and actin-related proteins as SUT1-interacting proteins confirmed the observation that movement of SUT1-containing intracellular vesicles can be blocked by inhibition of actin polymerization using specific inhibitors. Manipulation of expression of these interacting proteins represents one possible way to modify resource allocation by post-translational regulation of sucrose transporters.