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Elucidation of the Mechanisms Underlying Hypo-osmotically Induced Turgor Pressure Regulation in the Marine Alga Valonia utricularis

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Abstract

Exposure of the giant marine alga Valonia utricularis to acute hypo-osmotic shocks induces a transient increase in turgor pressure and subsequent back-regulation. Separate recording of the electrical properties of tonoplast and plasmalemma together with turgor pressure was performed by using a vacuolar perfusion assembly. Hypo-osmotic turgor pressure regulation was inhibited by external addition of 300 μM of the membrane-permeable ion channel blocker 5-nitro-2-(3-phenylpropylamino)benzoic acid (NPPB). In the presence of 100 μM NPPB, regulation could only be inhibited by simultaneous external addition of 200 μM 4,4′-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (DIDS), a membrane-impermeable inhibitor of Cl− transport. At concentrations of about 100 μM, NPPB seems to selectively inhibit Cl− transporters in the tonoplast and K+ transporters in the plasmalemma, whereas 300 μM NPPB inhibits K+ and Cl− transporters in both membranes. Evidence was achieved by measuring the tonoplast and plasmalemma conductances (G t and G p) in low-Cl− and K+-free artificial seawater. Inhibition of turgor pressure regulation by 300 μM NPPB was accompanied by about 85% reduction of G t and G p. Vacuolar addition of sulfate, an inhibitor of tonoplast Cl− transporters, together with external addition of DIDS and Ba2+ (an inhibitor of K+ transporters) also strongly reduced G p and G t but did not affect hypo-osmotic turgor pressure regulation. These and many other findings suggest that KCl efflux partly occurs via electrically silent transport systems. Candidates are vacuolar entities that are disconnected from the huge and many-folded central vacuole or that become disconnected upon disproportionate swelling of originally interconnected vacuolar entities upon acute hypo-osmotic challenge.

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Notes

  1. Unfortunately, for preparation of AVS media with a low Cl− concentration, 60 mM sulfuric acid were required to adjust the pH to the usual value of 6.3. Hence, no experimental strategy was available to separate a possible effect of lowering the vacuolar Cl− concentration on G t from an effect induced by vacuolar sulfate.

  2. This was justified by the finding that replacement of the vacuolar sap by AVS did not result in any changes of turgor pressure and the electrical parameters of the two membranes

  3. It should be noted that under these conditions the reduction of G p was more pronounced when charge pulses of negative polarity were applied. In K+-free ASW, G p values obtained by injection of a negative charge pulse were about half those derived from experiments in which positive pulses were applied (n = 2 cells). The discrepancy between the values is probably due to the fact that the K+ gradient imposed on the plasmalemma under these conditions is much steeper than in ASW (12 mM K+). Reduction of G t upon replacement of ASW by K+-free ASW was also slightly stronger with negative pulses (about 42%) than with positive pulses (about 30%), probably because cytosolic K+ was also affected by this treatment.

  4. Note that when the pressure was increased while cells were still bathed in ASW, subsequent K+ removal did not affect G t (n = 6) or caused only a slight decrease of G t (by 7 S · m−2 or less, n = 2)

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Zi 99/13-3) to U. Z. We thank Mrs. Katja Schwuchow for excellent technical assistance.

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  1. Lehrstuhl für Biotechnologie der Universität, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, D-97074, Würzburg, Germany

    Karl-Andree Binder, Frank Heisler, Markus Westhoff, Lars H. Wegner & Ulrich Zimmermann

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  1. Karl-Andree Binder
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  2. Frank Heisler
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  3. Markus Westhoff
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  4. Lars H. Wegner
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  5. Ulrich Zimmermann
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Correspondence to Ulrich Zimmermann.

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Karl-Andree Binder and Frank Heisler contributed equally to this work.

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Binder, KA., Heisler, F., Westhoff, M. et al. Elucidation of the Mechanisms Underlying Hypo-osmotically Induced Turgor Pressure Regulation in the Marine Alga Valonia utricularis . J Membrane Biol 213, 47–63 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-006-0047-9

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