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Journal of Experimental Biology 82,273-280 (1979)
Published by Company of Biologists 1979

Electrophysiology of Acanthocephalan Body Wall Muscles

B. S. WONG ¹, DONALD M. MILLER ¹, and T. T. DUNAGAN ¹

¹ Department of Physiology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois 62901

Body wall muscles of an acanthocephalan Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus were studied by means of scanning and light microscopy and intracellular recording of potentials. Three types of spontaneous potential changes were found: larger (L) potentials which usually exhibited overshoot and were as large as 65 mV; smaller symmetric (A) potentials approximately 15 mV in amplitude; and even smaller asymmetric (S) potentials which sometimes reached 10 mV. The potentials recorded depended upon the position of the electrode in the anterior-posterior, as well as the medialateral, axis. Tetrodotoxin eliminated L but not S potentials. Ouabain lengthened the time for depolarization of L potentials and depolarized the membrane potentials. It is suggested that the rete system activates the body wall muscles in Acanthocephala.