Hiring in life sciences? Share your open positions with our professional community. Read more Close

Advertisement

Use of ion-channel modulating agents to study cyanobacterial Na+-K+ fluxes

External protocol Created on 09 Apr 2014

Authors

Francesco Pomati, Brendan P. Burns, Brett A. Neilan

Summary

Here we describe an experimental design aimed to investigate changes in total cellular levels of Na+ and K+ ions in cultures of freshwater filamentous cyanobacteria. Ion concentrations were measured in whole cells by flame photometry. Cellular Na+ levels increased exponentially with rising alkalinity, with K+ levels being maximal for optimal growth pH (∼8). At standardized pH conditions, the increase in cellular Na+, as induced by NaCl at 10 mM, was coupled by the two sodium channel-modulating agents lidocaine hydrochloride at 1 µM and veratridine at 100 µM. Both the channel-blockers amiloride (1 mM) and saxitoxin (1 µM), decreased cell-bound Na+ and K+ levels. Results presented demonstrate the robustness of well-defined channel blockers and channel-activators in the study of cyanobacterial Na+- K+ fluxes.

Further details

The protocol was imported from Springer Protocols. To see the entire protocol, click on the source link, or download the pdf here.

Advertisement

Stats

  • Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
  • Views 282
  • Comments 0

Recommended by

  • No recommendations yet.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Advertisement