Comparative Analysis of Sucrose-Regulatory Genes in High- and Low-Sucrose Sister Clones of Sugarcane

Sugarcane is a significant primitive source of sugar and energy worldwide. The progress in enhancing the sugar content in sugarcane cultivars remains limited due to an insufficient understanding of specific genes related to sucrose production. The present investigation examined the enzyme activities, levels of reducing and non-reducing sugars, and transcript expression using RT-qPCR to assess the gene expression associated with sucrose metabolism in a high-sucrose sugarcane clone (GXB9) in comparison to a low-sucrose sister clone (B9). Sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS), sucrose phosphate phosphatase (SPP), sucrose synthase (SuSy), cell wall invertase (CWI), soluble acid invertase (SAI), and neutral invertase (NI) are essential enzymes involved in sucrose metabolism in sugarcane. The activities of these enzymes were comparatively quantified and analyzed in immature and maturing internodes of the high- and low-sucrose clones. The results showed that the higher-sucrose-accumulating clone had greater sucrose concentrations than the low-sucrose-accumulating clone; however, maturing internodes had higher sucrose levels than immature internodes in both clones. Hexose concentrations were higher in immature internodes than in maturing internodes for both clones. The SPS and SPP enzymes activities were higher in the high-sucrose-storing clone than in the low-sucrose clone. SuSy activity was higher in the low-sucrose clone than in the high-sucrose clone; further, the degree of SuSy activity was higher in immature internodes than in maturing internodes for both clones. The SPS gene expression was considerably higher in mature internodes of the high-sucrose clones than the low-sucrose clone. Conversely, the SuSy gene exhibited up-regulated expression in the low-sucrose clone. The enhanced expression of SPS in the high-sucrose clone compared to the low-sucrose clone suggests that SPS plays a major role in the increased accumulation of sucrose. These findings provide the opportunity to improve sugarcane cultivars by regulating the activity of genes related to sucrose metabolism using transgenic techniques.

Sucrose phosphate synthase and sucrose phosphate phosphatase interact in planta and promote plant growth and biomass accumulation

Bioinformatic analysis indicates that sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) contains a putative C-terminal sucrose phosphate phosphatase (SPP)-like domain that may facilitates the binding of SPP. If an SPS-SPP enzyme complex exists, it may provide sucrose biosynthesis with an additional level of regulation, forming a direct metabolic channel for sucrose-6-phosphate between these two enzymes. Herein, the formation of an enzyme complex between SPS and SPP was examined, and the results from yeast two-hybrid experiments suggest that there is indeed an association between these proteins. In addition, in planta bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) was observed in Arabidopsis seedlings, providing physical evidence for a protein interaction in live cells and in real time. Finally, bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) was employed in an attempt to detect SPS-SPP interactions visually. The findings clearly demonstrated that SPS interacts with SPP and that this interaction impacts soluble carbohydrate pools and affects carbon partitioning to starch. Moreover, a fusion construct between the two genes promotes plant growth in both transgenic Arabidopsis and hybrid poplar.