Glycine fluxes in squid giant axons.

1. The influx of a number of amino acids into squid giant axons has been studied. Particular emphasis has been placed on glycine and to a lesser extent glutamate. 2. To facilitate the study of the uptake of 14C-labelled amino acids a technique was devised in which the 14C taken up was measured directly in the intact axon with a glass scintillator fibre. This technique gave results similar to the usual technique in which the axoplasm was extruded for the assay of radioactivity. 3. The changes in glycine influx with extracellular glycine concentration suggests that two saturating components are present, one with high affinity and one with low affinity. 4. The glycine influx does not seem normally to be sensitive to the removal of extracellular sodium by replacement with choline. A Na-sensitive component appeared, however, after a period of immersion in artificial sea water. There was also some depression of glycine influx if Na were replaced by Li. 5. Glutamate uptake was greatly reduced by removal of extracellular Na in confirmation of work by Baker & Potashner (1973). Orthophosphate uptake was also greatly reduced by removal of extracellular Na. 6. CN reversibly inhibited glycine uptake after a delay, indicating that part of the uptake mechanism may require ATP. 7. 14C-labelled glycine injected into squid axons was found not to exchange to any serious extent with other compounds over periods of a few hours. The glycine efflux could therefore be studied. This was found to be markedly increased by extracellular glycine and by certain other neutral amino acids applied extracellularly in the artificial sea water. 8. The enhanced glycine efflux in extracellular glycine was not affected by ouabain and CN. 9. It is suggested that glycine uptake in squid axons involves two components. One is sensitive to CN and ouabain and probably derives energy from ATP break-down. The other is probably an ATP independent exchange diffusion system in which other amino acids as well as glycine can exchange for glycine. Both these systems are independent of extracellular Na concentration. A third Na-dependent system may appear under certain conditions.