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Research article2007Peer reviewedOpen access

Sweet delivery - sugar translocators as ports of entry for antisense oligodeoxynucleotides in plant cells

Sun CX, Ridderstrale K, Hoglund AS, Larsson LG, Jansson C

Abstract

Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) are short (12-25 nt long) stretches of single-stranded DNA that may be delivered to a cell, where they hybridize to the cognate mRNA in a sequence-specific manner, thereby inhibiting gene expression. Here we used confocal microscopy to monitor the uptake and trafficking of ODNs in barley tissues. We conclude that uptake of ODNs across the plant plasma membrane is mediated by active transport of mono- or disaccharides through sugar translocators. We demonstrate that sugar transport can deliver ODNs to barley seeds, and that this strategy may be employed to suppress gene activity in endosperm cells by antisense ODN inhibition. We further found that sucrose compared favorably with oligofectamine as a vehicle for ODN delivery to human cells in a low-serum environment

Published in

Plant Journal
2007, Volume: 52, number: 6, pages: 1192-1198
Publisher: BLACKWELL PUBLISHING