Membrane currents of the tunicate egg under the voltage-clamp condition.

1. Ionic currents of the egg membrane of a certain tunicate. Halocynthia roretzi Drashe, were studied by the voltage-clamp technique. 2. The membrane depolarization beyond -55mV in standard artificial sea water induced mainly transient inward current and slight outward currents, when the holding potential was kept at -99 mV. 3. The transient inward current was composed of two components; the major one showed a faster time course, a more negative critical level of about -55 mV, and a reversal potential around +60 mV and the minor one showed a slower time course, a less negative critical level o -10 mV, and no definite reversal potential. 4. The major component became maximum at about -25 mV with the peak time of 6-9 msec at 15 degrees C, and the maximum currents ranged from 0-5 to 1-5 X 10(-5) A/cm2. 5. The major component of the inward current was abolished by the replacement of Na with choline or Tris or Cs ions, while it was almost unaltered by the replacement with Li. The minor component was independent of Na concentration in the external solution. 6. The major component showed the activation and inactivation identical with those of Na current of other excitable membranes. A conditioning depolarization over -90 mV inactivated the Na current and the half inactivation of the major inward current was obtained by a conditioning pulse to -56 mV, when the pulse duration was 400 msec and the temperature was at 15 degrees C. 7. The time course of the Na current was formulated with m and h parameters in the following equations: (see article). 8. The kinetic parameters taum and tauh of egg Na current were calculated and compared with those of the squid axon. The potential dependence of taum and tauh was almost identical with that of the axon, but the absolute values of both taum and tauh were ten- to twentyfold larger than those of the axon in any range of the membrane potential. 9. The temperature depdence of the kinetic parameters taum, tauh and of the chord conductance gNa was studied. The Q10's for taum and tauh were both 4-0, while the Q10 for gNa was 2-0 in the temperature range from 5 to 20 degrees C. 10. The outward and inward rectifying conductances of egg membrane were remarkably activated at the potential level above +100 mV and below -70 mV respectively in standard artificial sea water. Both increased currents were subsequently subject to inactivation. 11. It was suggested that Na, Ca, K inward rectifying and K outward rectifying conductances all exist separately in the egg cell membrane and the Na current was essentially identical with that through the Na channel in other excitable membranes.