Pharmacology of K⁺ channels in the plasmalemma of the green alga Chara corallina

The outer membranes of plant cells contain channels which are highly selective for K⁺. However, many of their properties and their similarities to K⁺ channels found in animal cells had not previously been established. The channels open when the cells are depolarized in solutions with a high K⁺/Ca²⁺ ratio. In this work, the pharmacology of a previously identified plant K⁺ channel was examined. This survey showed that the channels have many properties which are similar to those of high-conductance Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channels (high G K⁺(Ca²⁺)). K⁺ currents in Chara were reduced by TEA⁺, Na⁺, Cs⁺, Ba²⁺, decamethonium and quinine, all inhibitors of, among other things, high G K⁺(Ca²⁺) channels. Tetracaine also inhibited K⁺ currents Chara, but its effect on most types of K⁺ channels in animal tissues is unknown. The currents were not inhibited by 4-aminopyridine (4AP), caffeine, tolbutamide, dendrotoxin, apamin or tubocurarine, which do not inhibit high G K⁺(Ca²⁺) channels, but affect other classes of K⁺ channels. The channels were "locked open" by 4AP, in a remarkably similar manner to that reported for K⁺(Ca²⁺) channels of a molluscan neuron. No evidence for the role of the inositol cycle in channel behavior was found, but its role in K⁺ channel control in animal cells is obscure. Potassium conductance was slightly decreased upon reduction of cytoplasmic ATP levels by cyanide + salicylhydroxamic acid (SHAM), consistent with channel control by phosphorylation. The anomalously strong voltage dependence of blockade by some ions (e.g. Cs⁺) is consistent with the channels being multiion pores. However, the channels also demonstrate some differences from the high G K⁺(Ca²⁺) channels found in animal tissues. The venom of the scorption, Leiurus quinquestriatus (LQV), and a protein component, charybdotoxin (CTX), an apparently specific inhibitor of high G K⁺(Ca²⁺) channels in various animal tissues, had no effect on the K⁺ channels in the Chara plasmalemma. Als,, pinacidil, an antihypertensive drug which may increase high G K⁺(Ca²⁺) channel activity had no effect on the channels in Chara. Although the described properties of the Chara K⁺ channels are most similar to those of high conductance K⁺(Ca²⁺) in animal cells, the effects of CTX and pinacidil are notably different; the channels are clearly of a different structure to those found in animal cells, but are possibly related.