{
  "abstract": "SWEET (Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporter) proteins mediate sugar transport and play important roles in plant growth, development, source-sink allocation, and responses to environmental stimuli. However, the conservation and diversification of the SWEET gene family across the wheat pan-genome remain poorly understood. Here, we performed a systematic pan-genome analysis of the SWEET gene family across 19 hexaploid wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) accessions. A total of 1,594 SWEET genes were identified, with 77–90 members in individual genomes. Gene copies belonging to core, soft-core, dispensable, and private homologous groups accounted for 52.6%, 30.9%, 14.6%, and 1.9%, respectively, based on presence/absence variation (PAV), revealing a predominantly conserved genomic framework accompanied by a smaller accession-variable component. Phylogenetic, motif, chromosomal and synteny analyses further revealed extensive evolutionary and genomic conservation accompanied by localized diversification among family members. Extensive homeologous and inter-accession collinearity was observed, and most pairwise ortholog comparisons exhibited Ka/Ks ratios below 1, supporting predominant purifying selection on conserved SWEET coding sequences. Promoter analysis identified diverse putative cis-regulatory elements related to environmental, hormonal, and developmental regulation, while transcriptome profiling showed heterogeneous tissue- and stress-associated expression patterns among TaSWEET genes. qRT-PCR analysis further suggested distinct temporal responses of selected TaSWEET genes under cold and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced osmotic stress. TaSWEET47 overexpression significantly increased grain width, thousand-grain weight, and mature-grain starch content in two independent transgenic lines without significantly affecting grain length. Collectively, these results reveal gene-content, evolutionary, regulatory, and transcriptional diversification within a broadly conserved SWEET family framework.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "College of Agriculture, Xinyang Agriculture and Forestry University",
    "School of Pharmacy, Xinyang Agriculture and Forestry University",
    "Institute of Biotechnology, Xianghu Laboratory"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yanlin Yang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Liuliu Wu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Junyan Sun"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Jie Li"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Shuhan Liu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Mingming Tang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Zongli Chu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Liping Dong"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Shumei Li"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Lei Dong"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d0t67d8pab6ge.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fpls.2026.1949812",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13719393/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "d0t67d8pab6ge",
  "issns": [
    "1664-462X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1949812/full",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1110|Plant Molecular Biology Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7222491739",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1949812/pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13719393",
  "pmid": "42964194",
  "published": "2026-10-16",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d0t67d8pab6ge.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:25Z",
      "native_id": "10.3389/fpls.2026.1949812",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1949812/full"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:21:36Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13719393",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13719393"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T12:23:22Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13719393",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2026.1949812"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:1110|Plant Molecular Biology Research",
      "subfield": "plant-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Pan-genome analysis reveals conservation and diversification of the SWEET gene family in wheat",
  "title_text": "Pan-genome analysis reveals conservation and diversification of the SWEET gene family in wheat",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-03T12:20:28Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d0t67d8pab6ge",
  "venue": "Frontiers in Plant Science",
  "versions": []
}