Sugar Pump in Plants Discovered

This article is about the recent study that discovered exactly how plants get the proper amount of sucrose. The plant doesn't have a muscle to pump the vitals through like the human heart so they use pump proteins to bring the sucrose around. The phloem is used to get the vital nutrientss around the plant and the pump proteins are what get the carbohydrates to the phloem. "With the participation of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, a research group at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, USA, has now succeeded in identifying this previously unknown sucrose transporter. Different proteins are involved here which belong to the recently identified protein family known as SWEET. The SWEETs arise in the cell membrane of the phloem parenchyma cells. They act as molecular pumps." This article was found at:http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/12/13/sugar_pump_in_plants_identified.html