In the Search for the SWEETest Pear.

Marcelo Lattarulo Campos

doi:10.1104/pp.20.00127

Abstract

If you close your eyes and think about the most delicious fruit you have ever tasted, it is likely that one specific characteristic will come to mind (and mouth!): its sweetness. Humans have a natural appreciation of plant sugars, and it is no surprise that enhanced sugar content is among the most

Highlights

If you close your eyes and think about the most delicious fruit you have ever tasted, it is likely that one specific characteristic will come to mind: its sweetness
PuSWEET15 is a putative member of the Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporter (SWEET) family of transmembrane sugar transporters, which are widely studied for their involvement in Suc allocation in many plant species (Chen et al, 2015)
Further genetic analysis demonstrated that PuSWEET15 overexpression culminated in increased Suc concentrations in NG fruits, whereas its silencing led to reduced levels of the carbohydrate in BNG

Summary

Introduction

If you close your eyes and think about the most delicious fruit you have ever tasted, it is likely that one specific characteristic will come to mind (and mouth!): its sweetness. They observed that one particular carbohydrate accumulated at significantly higher levels in BNG relative to NG fruits, namely Suc (colloquially known as table sugar). To uncover the genetic basis behind the higher Suc accumulation in the BNG pears, Li et al (2020) compared the transcriptomes of NG and BNG fruits at the time of commercial harvest.

Results

Conclusion