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Science 2 January 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5654, pp. 87 - 89
DOI: 10.1126/science.1091811
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Reports

A Previously Unknown Maltose Transporter Essential for Starch Degradation in Leaves

Totte Niittylä,1 Gaëlle Messerli,2 Martine Trevisan,2 Jychian Chen,3 Alison M. Smith,1* Samuel C. Zeeman2

A previously unknown maltose transporter is essential for the conversion of starch to sucrose in Arabidopsis leaves at night. The transporter was identified by isolating two allelic mutants with high starch levels and very high maltose, an intermediate of starch breakdown. The mutations affect a gene of previously unknown function, MEX1. We show that MEX1is a maltose transporter that is unrelated to other sugar transporters. The severe mex1 phenotype demonstrates that MEX1is the predominant route of carbohydrate export from chloroplasts at night. Homologous genes in plants including rice and potato indicate that maltose export is of widespread significance.

1 Department of Metabolic Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK.
2 Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH–3013 Bern, Switzerland.
3 Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: alison.smith{at}bbsrc.ac.uk

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