Cellular Behaviour Modulated by Ions: Electrophysiological Implications

ABSTRACT . This essay considers the responses of Paramecium and other ciliates to the inorganic ion environment from an elec‐trophysiological point of view. In reviewing data from published and unpublished sources it is shown that ions affect the cellular behaviour in multiple ways because the transmembrane potential can change due to the alteration of equilibrium potentials, ion conductances and surface charges of the membrane. Sensory input including effects from the ionic environment converge upon the membrane potential which has a temporal and spatial summing function. Hyperpolarizing and depolarizing potential shifts from the set point are near‐simultaneously and omnidirectionally transmitted along the membrane including the ciliary boundaries. The membrane potential regulates ciliary motility via an intraciliary messenger, Ca2+, which can enter, and presumably leave, the cytosol directly adjacent to the ciliary motor. Integration of the responses of thousands of cilia occurs in accordance with the electrical and structural provisions of the cell. Potential‐regulated motor and behavioural responses attenuate with time. This phenomenon, which has been loosely termed adaptation, has an electrophysiological basis in analogy to membrane accommodation following sustained stimulus input. The mechanisms of adaptation serve to restore, in principle, the membrane resting state and, thereby, the sensitivity to depolarizing and hyperpolarizing shifts of the membrane potential and the cell's responsiveness to environmental stimuli, respectively. For the inorganic ions involved in chemosensation the terms attractant and repellent are not applicable. They should be reserved to signalling substances which per se can define the behaviour of the cell.