Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36913519›Full record

ArticlePlant physiology2023

Analysis of companion cell and phloem metabolism using a transcriptome-guided model of Arabidopsis metabolism.

Hilary Hunt, Nico Brueggen, Alexander Galle, Sandy Vanderauwera, Claus Frohberg, Alisdair R Fernie, Uwe Sonnewald, Lee J Sweetlove

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Plant physiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
7.9field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Non-canonical plant metabolism.Nature plants · 2025
    Review
  6. Phloem cell responses to the feeding activity ofFrontiers in plant science · 2025
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Hilary HuntDepartment of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK.
Nico BrueggenDepartment of Biology, Division of Biochemistry, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstrasse 5, Erlangen 91ß58, Germany.
Alexander GalleBASF Belgium Coordination Center CommV, Innovation Center Gent, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 101, Gent 9052, Belgium.
Sandy VanderauweraBASF Belgium Coordination Center CommV, Innovation Center Gent, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 101, Gent 9052, Belgium.
Claus FrohbergBASF Belgium Coordination Center CommV, Innovation Center Gent, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 101, Gent 9052, Belgium.
Alisdair R FernieMax Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, Potsdam 14476, Germany.
Uwe SonnewaldDepartment of Biology, Division of Biochemistry, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstrasse 5, Erlangen 91ß58, Germany.
Lee J SweetloveDepartment of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK.
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg · DEUniversity of Oxford · GBMax Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Companion cells and sieve elements play an essential role in vascular plants, and yet the details of the metabolism that underpins their function remain largely unknown. Here, we construct a tissue-scale flux balance analysis (FBA) model to describe the metabolism of phloem loading in a mature Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) leaf. We explore the potential metabolic interactions between mesophyll cells, companion cells, and sieve elements based on the current understanding of the physiology of phloem tissue and through the use of cell type-specific transcriptome data as a weighting in our model. We find that companion cell chloroplasts likely play a very different role to mesophyll chloroplasts. Our model suggests that, rather than carbon capture, the most crucial function of companion cell chloroplasts is to provide photosynthetically generated ATP to the cytosol. Additionally, our model predicts that the metabolites imported into the companion cell are not necessarily the same metabolites that are exported in phloem sap; phloem loading is more efficient if certain amino acids are synthesized in the phloem tissue. Surprisingly, in our model predictions, the proton-pumping pyrophosphatase (H+-PPiase) is a more efficient contributor to the energization of the companion cell plasma membrane than the H+-ATPase.

Indexed as

ArabidopsisArabidopsis ProteinsBiological TransportPhloemProton-Translocating ATPasesTranscriptomeArabidopsis ProteinsProton-Translocating ATPases

Identifiers

PMID36913519
PMCPMC10231466
OpenAlexW4324027022

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.