Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate regulates plant K+ channels.

Phosphoinositides play an important role in both abiotic and biotic signalling in plants. The signalling cascade may include the production of second messengers by hydrolysis of PtdIns(4,5) P 2 . However, increasingly, PtdIns(4,5) P 2 itself is shown to mediate signalling by regulating target proteins. The present mini-review summarizes the experimentally demonstrated effects of PtdIns(4,5) P 2 on plant K + channels and examines their structure for candidate sites of direct PtdIns(4,5) P 2 –protein interaction.