Toward a better understanding of signaling networks in plants: yeast has the power!

In response to abiotic stresses, plants produce the hormone abscisic acid (ABA). The ABA signaling pathway is highly complex and relies on a large number of gene copies encoding homologous signaling components, theoretically enabling numerous permutations. In this issue, Ruschhaupt et al (2019) used yeast as a reconstitution system to examine the functionality, plasticity, and efficiency of this complex and highly multiplexed core signaling pathway.