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First published online January 25, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 523-537 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01417

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Cell volume control in Paramecium: factors that activate the control mechanisms

Masaaki Iwamoto^*, Kazuyuki Sugino, Richard D. Allen and Yutaka Naitoh

Pacific Biomedical Research Center, Snyder Hall 306, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2538 The Mall, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

Author for correspondence (e-mail: naitoh{at}pbrc.hawaii.edu)

Accepted 30 November 2004

A fresh water protozoan Paramecium multimicronucleatum adapted to a given solution was found to swell until the osmotic pressure difference between the cytosol and the solution balanced the cytosolic pressure. The cytosolic pressure was generated as the cell swelled osmotically. When either one or both of these pressures was somehow modified, cell volume would change until a new balance between these pressures was established. A hypothetical osmolyte transport mechanism(s) was presumably activated when the cytosolic pressure exceeded the threshold value of 1.5 x 10⁵ Pa as the cell swelled after its subjection to a decreased osmolarity. The cytosolic osmolarity thereby decreased and the volume of the swollen cell resumed its initial value. This corresponds to regulatory volume decrease (RVD). By contrast, another hypothetical osmolyte transport mechanism(s) was activated when the cell shrank after its subjection to an increased osmolarity. The cytosolic osmolarity thereby increased and volume of the shrunken cell resumed its initial value. This corresponds to regulatory volume increase (RVI). The osmolyte transport mechanism responsible for RVD might be activated again when the external osmolarity decreases further, and the cytosolic osmolarity thereby decreases to the next lower level. Similarly, another osmolyte transport mechanism responsible for RVI might be activated again when the external osmolarity increases further, and the cytosolic osmolarity thereby increases to the next higher level. Stepwise changes in the cytosolic osmolarity caused by a gradual change in the adaptation osmolarity found in P. multimicronucleatum is attributable to these osmolyte transport mechanisms. An abrupt change in the amount of fluid discharged from the contractile vacuole seen immediately after changing the external osmolarity reduces an abrupt change in cell volume and thereby protects the cell from the disruption of the plasma membrane by excessive stretch or dehydration during shrinkage.

Key words: cell volume control, osmoreception, osmoregulation, RVI, RVD, cytosolic pressure, osmotic pressure, bulk modulus, contractile vacuole, Paramecium

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