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Separation of membrane currents using a Paramecium mutant

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Abstract

The net membrane current of the electrically excitable membrane of Paramecium during step depolarisations was measured using voltage-clamp techniques. The mutant, pawn B, lacks a functional Ca channel. Thus the difference between the total current measured in the wild type and the leakage and rectification currents measured in the pawn mutant is the Ca current. These findings were confirmed by ion substitution experiments. The possibility that inactivation may be apparent only, and caused by a hypothetical, superposed, Ca-induced, rectifying K+ current was eliminated.

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Author notes

  1. Donata Oertel

    Present address: Dept of Neurobiology Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck St, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706

    Donata Oertel

  2. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, 10461

    Stanley J. Schein

  3. Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706

    Ching Kung

Authors
  1. Donata Oertel
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  2. Stanley J. Schein
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  3. Ching Kung
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Oertel, D., Schein, S. & Kung, C. Separation of membrane currents using a Paramecium mutant. Nature 268, 120–124 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/268120a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/268120a0

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