scholarly journals Reversible loss of potassium effect in distilled water

PROTOPLASMA ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-156
1933 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. V. Osterhout ◽  
S. E. Hill

Not only does distilled water take away the irritability of Nitella but it also changes its behavior toward potassium. In normal cells potassium is strongly negative to sodium but after sufficient exposure to distilled water this effect disappears. It can be restored by returning the cells to their normal environment or to a suitable nutrient solution. This change in the protoplasm seems to be chiefly in its outer surface.


1935 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 687-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. Hill ◽  
W. J. V. Osterhout

Treatment of Nitella with distilled water apparently removes from the cell something which is responsible for the normal irritability and the potassium effect, (i.e. the large P.D. between a spot in contact with 0.01 M KCl and one in contact with 0.01 M NaCl). Presumably this substance (called R) is partially removed from the protoplasm by the distilled water. When this has happened a pinch which forces sap out into the protoplasm can restore its normal behavior. The treatment with distilled water which removes the potassium effect from the outer protoplasmic surface does not seem to affect the inner protoplasmic surface in the same way since the latter retains the outwardly directed potential which is apparently due to the potassium in the sap. But the inner surface appears to be affected in such fashion as to prevent the increase in its permeability which is necessary for the production of an action current. The pinch restores its normal behavior, presumably by forcing R from the sap into the protoplasm.


1940 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. V. Osterhout

Leaching in distilled water may remove irritability and the potassium effect in Nitella but both of these may be restored by appropriate treatment with guanidine.


1935 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 681-686
Author(s):  
W. J. V. Osterhout ◽  
S. E. Hill

Treatment with distilled water removes from Nitella the ability to give the large potential difference between 0.01 M KCl and 0.01 M NaCl which is known as the potassium effect. The potassium effect may be restored by action currents. This might be explained by saying that distilled water removes from the surface a substance, R, which is responsible for the potassium effect and which moves into the surface during the action current and thereby restores the potassium effect.


1935 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 987-995 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. V. Osterhout

The potassium effect in Nitella (the high P.D. observed in leading off from a spot in contact with 0.01 M KCl to one in contact with 0.01 M NaCl) and the irritability can be removed by placing cells in distilled water for 2 or 3 days. They can be restored by NH3 or by NH4Cl. The potassium effect can also be restored by tetraethyl ammonium chloride (no tests were made of its ability to restore irritability).


Author(s):  
Sydney S. Breese ◽  
Howard L. Bachrach

Continuing studies on the physical and chemical properties of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) have included electron microscopy of RNA strands released when highly purified virus (1) was dialyzed against demlneralized distilled water. The RNA strands were dried on formvar-carbon coated electron microscope screens pretreated with 0.1% bovine plasma albumin in distilled water. At this low salt concentration the RNA strands were extended and were stained with 1% phosphotungstic acid. Random dispersions of strands were recorded on electron micrographs, enlarged to 30,000 or 40,000 X and the lengths measured with a map-measuring wheel. Figure 1 is a typical micrograph and Fig. 2 shows the distributions of strand lengths for the three major types of FMDV (A119 of 6/9/72; C3-Rezende of 1/5/73; and O1-Brugge of 8/24/73.


Author(s):  
Russell L. Steere ◽  
Eric F. Erbe

It has been assumed by many involved in freeze-etch or freeze-fracture studies that it would be useless to etch specimens which were cryoprotected by more than 15% glycerol. We presumed that the amount of cryoprotective material exposed at the surface would serve as a contaminating layer and prevent the visualization of fine details. Recent unexpected freeze-etch results indicated that it would be useful to compare complementary replicas in which one-half of the frozen-fractured specimen would be shadowed and replicated immediately after fracturing whereas the complement would be etched at -98°C for 1 to 10 minutes before being shadowed and replicated.Standard complementary replica holders (Steere, 1973) with hinges removed were used for this study. Specimens consisting of unfixed virus-infected plant tissue infiltrated with 0.05 M phosphate buffer or distilled water were used without cryoprotectant. Some were permitted to settle through gradients to the desired concentrations of different cryoprotectants.


Author(s):  
Russell L. Steere ◽  
Eric F. Erbe

Thin sheets of acrylamide and agar gels of different concentrations were prepared and washed in distilled water, cut into pieces of appropriate size to fit into complementary freeze-etch specimen holders (1) and rapidly frozen. Freeze-etching was accomplished in a modified Denton DFE-2 freeze-etch unit on a DV-503 vacuum evaporator.* All samples were etched for 10 min. at -98°C then re-cooled to -150°C for deposition of Pt-C shadow- and C replica-films. Acrylamide gels were dissolved in Chlorox (5.251 sodium hypochlorite) containing 101 sodium hydroxide, whereas agar gels dissolved rapidly in the commonly used chromic acid cleaning solutions. Replicas were picked up on grids with thin Foimvar support films and stereo electron micrographs were obtained with a JEM-100 B electron microscope equipped with a 60° goniometer stage.Characteristic differences between gels of different concentrations (Figs. 1 and 2) were sufficiently pronounced to convince us that the structures observed are real and not the result of freezing artifacts.


Author(s):  
E. Keyhani

The matrix of biological membranes consists of a lipid bilayer into which proteins or protein aggregates are intercalated. Freeze-fracture techni- ques permit these proteins, perhaps in association with lipids, to be visualized in the hydrophobic regions of the membrane. Thus, numerous intramembrane particles (IMP) have been found on the fracture faces of membranes from a wide variety of cells (1-3). A recognized property of IMP is their tendency to form aggregates in response to changes in experi- mental conditions (4,5), perhaps as a result of translational diffusion through the viscous plane of the membrane. The purpose of this communica- tion is to describe the distribution and size of IMP in the plasma membrane of yeast (Candida utilis).Yeast cells (ATCC 8205) were grown in synthetic medium (6), and then harvested after 16 hours of culture, and washed twice in distilled water. Cell pellets were suspended in growth medium supplemented with 30% glycerol and incubated for 30 minutes at 0°C, centrifuged, and prepared for freeze-fracture, as described earlier (2,3).


Author(s):  
Eugene J. Amaral

Examination of sand grain surfaces from early Paleozoic sandstones by electron microscopy reveals a variety of secondary effects caused by rock-forming processes after final deposition of the sand. Detailed studies were conducted on both coarse (≥0.71mm) and fine (=0.25mm) fractions of St. Peter Sandstone, a widespread sand deposit underlying much of the U.S. Central Interior and used in the glass industry because of its remarkably high silica purity.The very friable sandstone was disaggregated and sieved to obtain the two size fractions, and then cleaned by boiling in HCl to remove any iron impurities and rinsed in distilled water. The sand grains were then partially embedded by sprinkling them onto a glass slide coated with a thin tacky layer of latex. Direct platinum shadowed carbon replicas were made of the exposed sand grain surfaces, and were separated by dissolution of the silica in HF acid.


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