Quantized Fluxes of Chloride to the Vacuole ofNitella translucens

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Abstract
It has been shown previously that the transfer of tracer chloride from the outside solution to the vacuole of Nitella translucens is initially linear with time. In this paper the relations between the initial rate of chloride transfer to the vacuole and the total influx to the cell are further examined. In the individual cells in each experiment the ratio (initial rate of transfer to the vacuole/rate of entry to the cell), Mov/MT, is quantized; that is, in each experiment the ratio takes values close to α, 2α, 3α,... etc. Formation of pinocytotic vesicles is a process which could be imagined to be quantized, but the fact that it is a flux ratio, rather than a flux, which is quantized suggests that entry to a small cytoplasmic phase, such as the endoplasmic reticulum, must precede a quantized discharge to the vacuole. It is suggested that the kinetics of tracer movement to the vacuole are consistent with transfer in small vacuoles budded off the endoplasmic reticulum which then fuse with the central vacuole.

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