Active Transport by the Cecropia Midgut

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Abstract
The electrical potential across the isolated midgut of five developmental stages of the Cecropia silkworm was studied by changing the concentration of single cations in solutions bathing each side of the midgut. The stages included feeding fourth-instar insects, insects moulting from the fourth to the fifth instar, feeding fifth-instar insects, insects which had evacuated their midguts, and insects spinning cocoons. Average values of the initial maximal potential exhibited by the midgut in solutions containing K, Mg, and Ca but no Na, for the stages mentioned above, were 68, 83, 90, 124, and 2 mV., respectively. In all of the developmental stages studied except the ‘spinning larva’, reducing the potassium concentration from 32 to 2 mM/l. on the blood-side of the isolated gut lowers the potential, on the lumen-side of the gut raises the potential and on both sides gives an intermediate value. When the potential prior to a decrease in concentration of potassium on the blood-side is over 100 mV., the Nernst slope approaches 59 mV. A tenfold reduction in the concentration of magnesium or the addition of 32 mM/l. sodium to the solutions bathing the isolated gut has no systematic effect on the potential. A tenfold drop in the concentration of calcium in the solutions causes changes in the potential in the opposite direction from those predicted by the Nernst equation. The pH of the midgut contents rises from early fourth instar to late fifth instar. The hydrogen-ion concentration of the blood is about 1000 times more than that of midgut contents in fifth-instar insects. Neither synthetic ecdysone, partially purified natural ecdysone nor juvenile hormone has an effect on the potential or current of the isolated midgut over periods as long as 30 min.