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K⁺ is an essential macronutrient required by plants to complete their life cycle. It fulfills important functions and it is widely used as a fertilizer to increase crop production. Thus, the identification of the systems involved in K⁺ acquisition by plants has always been a research goal as it may eventually produce molecular tools to enhance crop productivity further. This review is focused on the recent findings on the systems involved in K⁺ acquisition. From Epstein's pioneering work >40 years ago, K⁺ uptake was considered to consist of a high- and a low-affinity component. The subsequent molecular approaches identified genes encoding K⁺ transport systems which could be involved in the first step of K⁺ uptake at the plant root. Insights into the regulation of these genes and the proteins that they encode have also been gained in recent studies. A demonstration of the role of the two main K⁺ uptake systems at the …