The signaling pathway of the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates responses towards abiotic stress such as drought and high osmotic conditions. The multitude of functionally redundant components involved in ABA signaling, poses a major challenge for elucidating the largely unresolved response selectivity. We decided rebuilding single linear ABA signaling pathways in yeast for combinatoric permutation of ABA receptors and coreceptors, as well as the response-mediating SnRK2 protein kinases and their targeted transcription factors to drive luciferase expression in a heterologous host. We show that SnRK2s differ in the regulation by ABA receptor complexes, affect ABA responsiveness of the pathway, and differ in their transactivation activity but have similar preferences for ABA-responsive transcription factors. SnRK2s thought to act ABA-independently and known to be activated under osmotic stress in plants were regulated by ABA receptor complexes in yeast and competed with ABA receptor components in an ABA-dependent manner in plant tissue. The study reveals the suitability of the yeast system for analysis of ABA signaling factors and allowing the future dissection of ligand-receptor specificities in a functional response pathway. The analysis provides new insights into SnRK2 regulation indicating that four SnRK2 members of the osmotic stress response are tightly embedded into the ABA signaling pathway.