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Properties of Shaker-type Potassium Channels in Higher Plants

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Abstract

Potassium (K+), the most abundant cation in biological organisms, plays a crucial role in the survival and development of plant cells, modulation of basic mechanisms such as enzyme activity, electrical membrane potentials, plant turgor and cellular homeostasis. Due to the absence of a Na+/K+ exchanger, which widely exists in animal cells, K+ channels and some type of K+ transporters function as K+ uptake systems in plants. Plant voltage-dependent K+ channels, which display striking topological and functional similarities with the voltage-dependent six-transmembrane segment animal Shaker-type K+ channels, have been found to play an important role in the plasma membrane of a variety of tissues and organs in higher plants. Outward-rectifying, inward-rectifying and weakly-rectifying K+ channels have been identified and play a crucial role in K+ homeostasis in plant cells. To adapt to the environmental conditions, plants must take advantage of the large variety of Shaker-type K+ channels naturally present in the plant kingdom. This review summarizes the extensive data on the structure, function, membrane topogenesis, heteromerization, expression, localization, physiological roles and modulation of Shaker-type K+ channels from various plant species. The accumulated results also help in understanding the similarities and differences in the properties of Shaker-type K+ channels in plants in comparison to those of Shaker channels in animals and bacteria.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

abscisic acid

BA:

benzyladenine

CDS:

Coding Sequence

cNBD:

cyclic nucleotide binding domain

2,4-D:

2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

EAG:

ether a gogo

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant fellowship of Nagoya University to FG and by the Ministero dell’Istruzione e della Ricerca of Italy, Fondi per gli Investimenti della Ricerca di Base, Project N-RBAUO183A9, by a grants-in-aid for scientific research (17078005 and 17380064) and the 21st Century COE Program from MEXT and JSPS and Institute for Advanced Research Project Funds from Nagoya University. We thank Alessia Naso for helpful discussion and the construction of the phylogenetic tree, and Ingo Dreyer, Armando Carpaneto and Joachim Scholz-Starke for critical reading of the manuscript. F.G. dedicates this paper to the memory of G. Menestrina (1954–2004).

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  1. Istituto di Biofisica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via De Marini 6, 16149, Genova, Italy

    F. Gambale

  2. Bioscience and Biotechnology Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    N. Uozumi

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  1. F. Gambale
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Gambale, F., Uozumi, N. Properties of Shaker-type Potassium Channels in Higher Plants. J Membrane Biol 210, 1–19 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-006-0856-x

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