Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Oct 27:12:758202.
doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.758202. eCollection 2021.

Plant Secondary Metabolite Transporters: Diversity, Functionality, and Their Modulation

Panchsheela Nogia  1 , Pratap Kumar Pati  1
Affiliations
Review

Plant Secondary Metabolite Transporters: Diversity, Functionality, and Their Modulation

Panchsheela Nogia et al. Front Plant Sci. .

Abstract

Secondary metabolites (SMs) play crucial roles in the vital functioning of plants such as growth, development, defense, and survival via their transportation and accumulation at the required site. However, unlike primary metabolites, the transport mechanisms of SMs are not yet well explored. There exists a huge gap between the abundant presence of SM transporters, their identification, and functional characterization. A better understanding of plant SM transporters will surely be a step forward to fulfill the steeply increasing demand for bioactive compounds for the formulation of herbal medicines. Thus, the engineering of transporters by modulating their expression is emerging as the most viable option to achieve the long-term goal of systemic metabolic engineering for enhanced metabolite production at minimum cost. In this review article, we are updating the understanding of recent advancements in the field of plant SM transporters, particularly those discovered in the past two decades. Herein, we provide notable insights about various types of fully or partially characterized transporters from the ABC, MATE, PUP, and NPF families including their diverse functionalities, structural information, potential approaches for their identification and characterization, several regulatory parameters, and their modulation. A novel perspective to the concept of "Transporter Engineering" has also been unveiled by highlighting its potential applications particularly in plant stress (biotic and abiotic) tolerance, SM accumulation, and removal of anti-nutritional compounds, which will be of great value for the crop improvement program. The present study creates a roadmap for easy identification and a better understanding of various transporters, which can be utilized as suitable targets for transporter engineering in future research.

Keywords: ABC; MATE; NPF; PUP; metabolite transporter; secondary metabolite; systemic metabolic engineering; transporter engineering.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic representation of ABC, MATE, PUP, and NPF transporters. The diagram denotes transporter classification, localization (plasma membrane/tonoplast), general structure, directionality, energy source (ATP hydrolysis/proton or other cation gradients), domains and subfamilies (only for ABC transporter), and transport mechanisms (uniport/symport/antiport). For each category of the transporter family, important examples of plant secondary metabolite transporters along with their corresponding target metabolites are illustrated. The panels (A–D) represent the generalized topology of the transporters belonging to the ABC, MATE, PUP, and NPF families, respectively. ABC, ATP binding cassette; MATE, multidrug and toxic compound extrusion; NPF, nitrate and peptide transporter family; PME, plasma membrane exporter; PMI, plasma membrane importer; PUP, purine uptake permease; VE, vacuolar exporter; VI, vacuolar importer (? represents that enough information is not available).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Factors affecting the activity and function of the plant secondary metabolite transporters.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Potential regulatory mechanisms employed by several key factors affecting the transporter functioning in plants. This model displays the interaction of various regulatory factors with secondary metabolite biosynthesis and transporter protein expression/activation. The interactions also depict the possible cross-talks between metabolite biosynthesis and transporter expression. CRE, cis-regulatory elements; PTM, post-translational modifications; SM, secondary metabolite; TF, transcription factors.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The transporter engineering model depicting the scheme for modulation in the expression of transporters and their applications. ABC, ATP binding cassette; MATE, multidrug and toxic compound extrusion; NPF, nitrate and peptide transporter family; PUP, purine uptake permease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Adebesin F., Widhalm J. R., Boachon B., Lefevre F., Pierman B., Lynch J. H., et al. (2017). Emission of volatile organic compounds from petunia flowers is facilitated by an ABC transporter. Science 356 1386–1388. 10.1126/science.aan0826 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andersen T. G., Nour-Eldin H. H., Fuller V. L., Olsen C. E., Burow M., Halkier B. A. (2013). Integration of biosynthesis and long-distance transport establish organ-specific glucosinolate profiles in vegetative Arabidopsis. Plant cell 25 3133–3145. 10.1105/tpc.113.110890 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aryal B., Laurent C., Geisler M. (2015). Learning from each other: ABC transporter regulation by protein phosphorylation in plant and mammalian systems. Biochem. Soc. Trans. 43 966–974. 10.1042/BST20150128 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Augustine R., Mukhopadhyay A., Bisht N. C. (2013). Targeted silencing of BjMYB28 transcription factor gene directs development of low glucosinolate lines in oilseed Brassica juncea. Plant Biotechnol. J. 11 855–866. 10.1111/pbi.12078 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bailly A. (2014). “Structure–function of plant ABC-transporters,” in Plant ABC Transporters, ed. Geisler M. (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing; ), 219–240. 10.1007/978-3-319-06511-3_12 - DOI