1. Electrophoretic injection of Ca ions into Aplysia pace‐maker neurones activates an outward current, carried primarily by K ions, whose magnitude is determined by the intensity and duration of the injection current, the position of the injection electrode within the cell and the holding potential. 2. The efflux of K ions measured with an extracellular K sensitive electrode is a linear function of the Ca activated outward current and disappears at its reversal potential. 3. The outward current decays exponentially with an early and late phase. The early but not the late phase is temperature dependent with a Q10 of about 3‐5. 4. Of the divalent cations which activate the outward current, Ca is the most effective followed by Cd, Hg, Sr, Mn and Fe. Injections of Ba, Co, Cu, Mg, Ni and Zn are ineffective. 5. Low temperatures or prolonged injection of Cd or Hg, increase the amplitude of the outward current activated by Ca. 6. Prolonged injection of Ba inhibits the Ca activated outward current and reduces substantially all currents carried by K ions. 7. It is concluded that the effectiveness of a divalent cation in activating the K current is, in part, related to its ionic radius, and that the site of activation can accommodate ionic radii between about 0.76 and 1.13 A.
The electrical and spectral properties of depolarizing (proximal) and hyperpolarizing (distal) photoreceptors in the eye of the scallop, Pecten irradians, were examined. Both depolarizing and hyperpolarizing responses are associated with an increase in membrane conductance; in addition, the depolarizing response is characterized by a secondary decrease in conductance at light intensities which inactivate the response. Both responses can be reversed in polarity by applied current across the cell membrane. The depolarizing response has a reversal potential of approximately +10 mv, whereas the estimated reversal potential for the hyperpolarizing response is near -70 mv. The two responses have the same spectral sensitivity function, which agrees with a Dartnall nomogram for a rhodospin with a lambda(max) at 500 nm. It is suggested that the photochemical reactions produce different end products which give responses of opposite polarity in proximal and distal cells, or alternatively, that the reactions of the respective cell membranes to the same end product are different.
1. The passive electrical properties of the membrane of the gastrooesophageal giant neurone (G cell) of the marine mollusc, Anisodoris nobilis were studied with small current steps.2. The membrane transient response can be fitted with a theoretical curve assuming as a model for the cell a sphere (soma) connected to a cable (axon). The axo-somatic conductance ratio (rho), determined by applying this model, is large (approximately 5) and the membrane time constant (tau) is long (approximately 1 sec).3. When the actual surface area of the cell, corrected for surface infoldings, and the spread of current along its axon is taken into account, the electrical measurements imply a specific resistance of the membrane of approximately 1.0 MOmega.cm(2).4. Estimates of specific membrane capacity, either from measurements of the initial portion of the membrane transient or from the ratio of the time constant to the specific membrane resistance are close to the value of 1 muF/cm(2) expected for biological membranes.5. Thus, our measurements of specific capacitance, time constant, length constant and axo-somatic conductance ratio all indicate that the value found for the specific membrane resistance of the G cell, while unexpectedly large, is valid.6. The magnitude of this value suggests that the conductance (permeability) of its membrane to ions is much smaller than that previously assumed for nerve membranes; this small conductance may be related to the larger surface-to-volume ratio of the G cell.
1. The membrane potential of the gastro‐oesophageal giant neurone of the marine mollusc, Anisodoris nobilis , was examined during changes of temperature and of the ionic medium. 2. The response of the membrane potential to rapid changes in the external K concentration was prompt, stable, and reversible up to 200 m M ‐K, and was independent of the external Cl concentration. 3. Warming the cell produced a prompt hyperpolarization that was approximately 10 times greater than predicted by the Nernst or constant field equations. Electrogenic activity of the Na—K exchange pump was shown to be responsible for this effect. 4. At temperatures below 5° C, the relationship between the membrane potential and the external K concentration could be predicted by a constant field equation. 5. At temperatures above 5° C, the membrane potential could not be predicted by the constant field equation except after inhibition of the electrogenic Na pump with ouabain or the reduction of internal Na. 6. Inhibition of the electrogenic Na pump by low external K concentrations was dependent upon the external Na concentration. 7. It is concluded that the membrane potential is the sum of ionic and metabolic components, and that the behaviour of the ionic component can be predicted by a constant field type equation.
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