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Cholinergic response in the heart of the clamMercenaria mercenaria: Activation byConus californicus venom component

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Summary

The spontaneously beating heart of the clamMercenaria mercenaria is inhibited by an extract from the venom of the marine snailConus californicus (Fig. 1). This inhibition is antagonized by benzoquinonium, tetraethylammonium, phenyltrimethylammonium and methylxylocholine (Fig. 2), all of which antagonize cholinergic inhibition ofMercenaria heart, and is not blocked by d-tubocurarine, hexamethonium, atropine, orα-Bungarotoxin (Fig. 3). In addition, cholinergic inhibition ofMercenaria heart is mimicked by arecoline, blocked by methylxylocholine (Fig. 2) and phenyltrimethylammonium, and not significantly affected by hexamethonium orα-Bungarotoxin. It is proposed that theConus venom agent inhibitsMercenaria heart by activation of the cholinergic response of the heart. It is also concluded that the cholinergic response inMercenaria heart is pharmacologically identical to the slow, potassium-mediated hyperpolarizing cholinergic response found onAplysia neurons (Table 1).

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Author notes

  1. Ellen J. Elliott

    Present address: Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, Maryland, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, 91125, Pasadena, California, USA

    Ellen J. Elliott

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  1. Ellen J. Elliott
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This work was made possible by predoctoral fellowships to the author from the National Science Foundation, Calbiochem, and the National Defense and Education Act. The author would like to thank Michael Raftery, in whose laboratory the experiments were performed, and Herbert Levitan and Robert G. Rowher for their careful reading and helpful criticisms of the manuscript.

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Elliott, E.J. Cholinergic response in the heart of the clamMercenaria mercenaria: Activation byConus californicus venom component. J. Comp. Physiol. 129, 61–66 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00679912

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