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Cation/H+ Exchangers Overview

Plant growth, development and survival depend on the uptake and sorting of mineral nutrients and metabolites to specific organs, cell types and intracellular compartments, and also on the extrusion and compartmentalization of toxic ions. Yet it is not known how plants coordinate the expression and activity of over 800 transporters to achieve the proper ion balance during the plant’s life cycle.

The bulk of unknown transporters predicted from the Arabidopsis genome are secondary active transporters or proton-coupled cotransporters. Therefore, the major objectives of this 2010 project are to determine the ion specificity, the tissue and subcellular distribution, and the biological roles of 56 H+-coupled cation transporters including the CaCA, CPA1, and CPA2 families. New methods, tools and information resulting from the study will be distributed through this site and at http://www.cbs.umn.edu/2010/.

Transporters impact all life processes, including growth, reproduction, metabolism, movement, and responses to hormonal and environmental stimuli, thus resources and information generated from this project will directly contribute to the goals of the National Science Foundation Arabidopsis 2010 project. This is a collaborative project with Kendal Hirschi and John M. Ward. The Sze laboratory is studying 20 CHX genes within the CPA2 family.