Potassium uptake and homeostasis in plants grown under hostile environmental conditions, and its regulation by CBL-interacting protein kinases

Abiotic stresses impose major penalties on plant growth and agricultural crop production. Understanding the mechanisms by which plants perceive these abiotic stresses, and the subsequent signal transduction that activates their adaptive responses, is therefore of vital importance for improving plant stress tolerance in breeding programs. Among the plethora of second messengers employed by plant cells, calcineurin B–like proteins (CBLs) and CBL-interacting protein kinases (CIPKs) have emerged as critical components of the signal transduction pathways and regulators of plant ionic homeostasis under stress conditions. This chapter summarizes the current knowledge on interaction between CIPKs and K+ transport systems, and the role of the former in regulating cell ionic relations and K+ homeostasis in plants grown under adverse environmental conditions.