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Science 15 December 1967:
Vol. 158. no. 3807, pp. 1467 - 1469
DOI: 10.1126/science.158.3807.1467
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Articles

Giant Axon of Myxicola: Some Membrane Properties as Observed under Voltage Clamp

L. Binstock 1 and L. Goldman 2

1 National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014
2 Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore

A new space-voltage clamped giant (500 to 900 microns) axon preparation is described (Myxicola infundibulum). Normal value for resting and action potentials are 71 and 89 millivolts, respectively. This preparation under voltage clamp exhibits relations between current and voltage like those described for the squid axon. The early inward current component is reduced in a solution with low sodium concentration. This preparation, then, acts in all its essential features like the squid giant axon. Myxicola, however, can be made available the year around and should prove to be an extremely useful preparation for the study of excitable membranes.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)