Using Heterologous Expression Systems to Characterize Potassium and Sodium Transport Activities

The expression of plant transporters in simple well-characterized cell systems is an irreplaceable technique for gaining insights into the kinetic and energetic features of plant transporters. Among all the available expression systems, yeast cells offer the highest simplicity and have the capacity to mimic the in vivo properties of plant transporters. Here, we describe the use of yeast mutants to express K⁺ and Na⁺ plant transporters and discuss some experimental problems that can produce misleading results.