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Properties of the sodium pump in the blowfly photoreceptor cell

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Summary

  1. 1.

    The afterhyperpolarization (AHP) of the large peripheral photoreceptor cells of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala (also called C. vicina) was investigated using intracellular recording and current injection techniques in the intact animal.

  2. 2.

    The light-induced sodium influx during a 0.5 s non-saturating light flash was determined (about 5 nA per photoreceptor cell), and the total charge pumped out of the cell by a supposed electrogenic pump was calculated from the area under the resting membrane potential after that flash (during the AHP; approximately 1 nC).

  3. 3.

    The results favour the hypothesis that the AHP is caused by an electrogenic sodium pump extruding a light-induced sodium influx.

  4. 4.

    The mean coupling ratio of this pump (i.e. the ratio between the mean number of sodium ions and the mean number of potassium ions exchanged) is calculated to be 1.6±0.1.

  5. 5.

    The consequences of neglecting this electrogenic sodium pump (pump current in a cell in the resting state-0.5 nA, contributing -11 mV to the resting membrane potential) in cell modelling are discussed.

  6. 6.

    The oxygen consumption of the pump in the resting state is calculated to be 1×10−9 ml/min per photoreceptor cell or 3×10−5 ml/min for one whole retina.

  7. 7.

    The pump current in a light-adapted cell, calculated from a measured steady state input resistance vs. log intensity curve, appears to be about 3 times the resting value.

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Abbreviations

AHP :

afterhyperpolarization

DCC :

discontinuous current clamp

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysics, Laboratory for General Physics, University of Groningen, Westersingel 34, NL-9718 CM, Groningen, The Netherlands

    N. M. Jansonius

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Jansonius, N.M. Properties of the sodium pump in the blowfly photoreceptor cell. J Comp Physiol A 167, 461–467 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00190816

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