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Gerald Schoenknecht
Oklahoma State University
Associate Professor, Department of Botany
Address: 104 Life Sciences East, OSU, Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-5549 Fax: 405-744-7074
Email: gerald.schoenknecht@okstate.edu
URL: http://botany.okstate.edu/schoenk/index.html
Ph.D., Biology, 1990, University of Osnabrück, Germany Lab Photo
Postdoctoral:
Research Emphasis: Ion uptake and intracellular ion transport in higher plants; Plant membrane biology
Related Activities:
 
Research Description:

The goal of my research is to understand the physiological integration and the molecular mechanism of ion transport across the vacuolar membrane. In a mature plant cell the vacuole is by far the largest compartment and ion reservoir. Ion release and ion uptake by the vacuole play an essential role in turgor-driven movements, in intracellular signal transduction, and in plant growth and nutrition. We have recently identified the first vacuolar ion channel, the two-pore-domain K+ channel KCO1 of Arabidopsis thaliana. By employing a combination of reverse genetic, biophysical, and physiological approaches the function of vacuolar K+ channels in Arabidopsis will be further explored. A better understanding of the molecular nature and physiological function of vacuolar K+ channels will have a major impact on plant physiology in general and on the understanding of plant growth in particular.
 
Recent Publications:

Pottosin II, Schönknecht G (2007) Vacuolar calcium channels. J Exp Bot, in press.

Schönknecht G, Bauer C (2007) Modelling Ca2+ oscillations in plants. In: Rhythmus in Plants. S. Mancuso and S. Shabala, eds. ( Wien, New York: Springer), Chapter 14, pp. 295-311.

Pottosin II, Martínez-Estévez M, Dobrovinskaya OR, Muñiz J, Schönknecht G (2004) Mechanism of luminal Ca2+ and Mg2+ action on the vacuolar slowly activating channels. Planta 219 (6): 1057-1070 .
 
Selected Additional Publications:

Schönknecht G, Spoormaker P, Steinmeyer R, Brüggemann L, Ache P, Dutta R, Reintanz B, Godde M, Hedrich R, Palme K (2002) KCO1 is a component of the slow-vacuolar (SV) channel. FEBS Lett 511: 28-32.

Bock A, Krieger-Liszkay A, de Zarate IBO, Schönknecht G (2001) Cl- channel inhibitors of the arylaminobenzoate type act as Photosystem II herbicides: A functional and structural study. Biochemistry 40: 3273-3281.

Hedrich, R., Becker, D., Dietrich, P. and Schönknecht, G. (2000) Ion channels meet plant hormones. In: Plant Hormone Research. K. Palme and D. Schell eds. (Springer, Austria) Chapter 12.

Trebacz K, Schönknecht G (2000) Simple method to isolate vacuoles and protoplasts for patch-clamp experiments. Protoplasma 213: 39-45.