Trehalose 6-phosphate: A master regulator of plant development.
SharathKumar M, Zacharaki V, Muniz Nardeli S, Seibert T, Wahl V
Plant Signaling
Every potato in your garden and kernel of wheat on the stalk owes its size partly to this sugar-sensing switch — and scientists are now close enough to its controls that crop breeders may soon dial up seed filling or branching on demand.
Plants need to know how much sugar they have before committing energy to big moves like making flowers, filling seeds, or sprouting new branches. A tiny molecule called trehalose 6-phosphate acts like a fuel gauge, reading the plant's sugar supply and passing that signal to the parts of the plant that decide what to grow next. This review pulls together the latest research on how that gauge works across many different plants, from lab favorites to food crops, opening doors to breeding plants that grow more efficiently.
Key Findings
Trehalose 6-phosphate coordinates sucrose availability with major developmental decisions including seed filling, shoot branching, tuber formation, and the shift from vegetative to reproductive growth.
Genes in the trehalose 6-phosphate pathway show dynamic, tissue- and stage-specific expression patterns, suggesting the signal is precisely tuned in space and time rather than acting as a blunt whole-plant switch.
The pathway integrates both external environmental cues and internal hormonal signals, positioning it as a central hub where multiple developmental programs converge across both model plants and crop species.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A molecule called trehalose 6-phosphate acts as a master switch inside plants, reading sugar levels to decide when to sprout branches, fill seeds, form tubers, and transition from vegetative to flowering growth.
Abstract Preview
Trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P), a trehalose synthesis intermediate and sugar phosphate, serves as a signaling molecule coordinating sucrose status with plant growth and development. Beyond its metabol...
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