Regulatory roles of sugars in plant growth and development

Abstract

In recent years, several studies have focused on the factors and mechanisms that regulate plant growth and development, as well as the functioning of signaling pathways in plant cells, unraveling the involvement of sugars in the processes regulating such growth and development. Saccharides play an important role in the life of plants: they are structural and storage substances, respiratory substrates, and intermediate metabolites of many biochemical processes. Sucrose is the major transport form of assimilates in plants. Sugars can also play an important role in the defense reactions of plants. However, it has been shown that glucose, sucrose, or trehalose-6-phosphate (Tre6P) can regulate a number of growth and metabolic processes, acting independently of the basal functions; they can also act as signaling molecules. Changes in the concentration, qualitative composition, and transport of sugars occur continuously in plant tissues, during the day and night, as well as during subsequent developmental stages. Plants have developed an efficient system of perception and transmission of signals induced by lower or higher sugar availability. Changes in their concentration affect cell division, germination, vegetative growth, flowering, and aging processes, often independently of the metabolic functions. Currently, the mechanisms of growth regulation in plants, dependent on the access to sugars, are being increasingly recognized. The plant growth stimulating system includes hexokinase (as a glucose sensor), trehalose-6-phosphate, and TOR protein kinase; the lack of Tre6P or TOR kinase inhibits the growth of plants and their transition to the generative phase. It is believed that the plant growth inhibition system consists of SnRK1 protein kinases and C/S1 bZIP transcription factors. The signal transduction routes induced by sugars interact with other pathways in plant tissues (for example, hormonal pathways) creating a complex communication and signaling network in plants that precisely controls plant growth and development.