Electromechanical coupling in cilia I. Effects of depolarizing voltage steps

We have studied quantitative aspects of ciliary motor responses to membrane depolarization in the ciliate Stylonychia using voltage clamp and high‐speed cinematograhpy techniques and employing computer‐processing methods for evaluation. Depolarizations beyond 4 mV activate the cirri (compound cilia) which are at rest in the absence of a stimulus. The power stroke of activiated cirri is oriented toward the cell anterior. The frequency and duration of beating increase with rising depolarization. With very large positive stimuli (≥ 150 mV) activation of the response is delayed until the end of the voltage step (“off‐response”). The peak frequecy is essentially unaltered during sustained depolarization. The frequency drops exponentially following repolarization of the membrane. The time constant of the decay in ciliary activity rises with the amplitude, not with the duration of the depolarization. The ciliary motor response is most adequately represented by the number of evoked ciliary cycles (ciliary work), and appears to be related to the amplitude of the depolarization.