The CRaZy Calcium Cycle.

Calcium is an essential cation for a cell. This cation participates in the regulation of numerous processes in either prokaryotes or eukaryotes, from bacteria to humans. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has served as a model organism to understand calcium homeostasis and calcium-dependent signaling in fungi. In this chapter it will be reviewed known and predicted transport mechanisms that mediate calcium homeostasis in the yeast. How and when calcium enters the cell, how and where it is stored, when is reutilized, and finally secreted to the environment to close the cycle. As a second messenger, maintenance of a controlled free intracellular calcium concentration is important for mediating transcriptional regulation. Many environmental stimuli modify the concentration of cytoplasmic free calcium generating the "calcium signal". This is sensed and transduced through the calmodulin/calcineurin pathway to a transcription factor, named calcineurin-responsive zinc finger, CRZ, also known as "crazy", to mediate transcriptional regulation of a large number of genes of diverse pathways including a negative feedback regulation of the calcium homeostasis system.