Molecular characterization of a carbon transporter in plastids from heterotrophic tissues: the glucose 6-phosphate/phosphate antiporter.

Plastids of nongreen tissues import carbon as a source of biosynthetic pathways and energy. Within plastids, carbon can be used in the biosynthesis of starch or as a substrate for the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, for example. We have used maize endosperm to purify a plastidic glucose 6-phosphate/phosphate translocator (GPT). The corresponding cDNA was isolated from maize endosperm as well as from tissues of pea roots and potato tubers. Analysis of the primary sequences of the cDNAs revealed that the GPT proteins have a high degree of identity with each other but share only approximately 38% identical amino acids with members of both the triose phosphate/phosphate translocator (TPT) and the phosphoenolpyruvate/phosphate translocator (PPT) families. Thus, the GPTs represent a third group of plastidic phosphate antiporters. All three classes of phosphate translocator genes show differential patterns of expression. Whereas the TPT gene is predominantly present in tissues that perform photosynthetic carbon metabolism and the PPT gene appears to be ubiquitously expressed, the expression of the GPT gene is mainly restricted to heterotrophic tissues. Expression of the coding region of the GPT in transformed yeast cells and subsequent transport experiments with the purified protein demonstrated that the GPT protein mediates a 1:1 exchange of glucose 6-phosphate mainly with inorganic phosphate and triose phosphates. Glucose 6-phosphate imported via the GPT can thus be used either for starch biosynthesis, during which process inorganic phosphate is released, or as a substrate for the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, yielding triose phosphates.