AbiotiK stress and potassium transport in yeast and plants.

Ion homeostasis is a dynamic process and a fundamental requirement for all organisms. Many different minerals are required for essential biochemical processes, but accumulation of these elements is toxic. Thus, all living organisms have developed efficient systems to acquire and store these elements and robust mechanisms to maintain homeostatic concentrations to avoid toxicity and to respond to environmental changes. Potassium is a key monovalent cation necessary for multiple aspects of cell growth and survival, for example compensation of negative charges of macromolecules, maintenance of electroneutrality, cell turgor and volume, enzyme activity, protein synthesis, and maintenance of proper membrane potential and intracellular pH. The long term, general goal of our research group is to generate new knowledge regarding the regulation of potassium transporters from both plants and yeast which may be applied in future in biotechnological app