Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 30 March 1973:
Vol. 179. no. 4080, pp. 1336 - 1338
DOI: 10.1126/science.179.4080.1336
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Electrogenic Sodium Pump and High Specific Resistance in Nerve Cell Bodies of the Squid

David O. Carpenter 1

1 Laboratory of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014, and Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543

An electrogenic sodium pump contributes to the membrane potential in squid nerve cell bodies, imparting a temperature dependence to the resting potential that is abolished by strophanthidin. The existence of a potential produced by the pump in the soma but not the axon is correlated with a higher membrane resistance in the soma. Thus, membranes from different parts of a neuron may have functionally significant differences in resistance.

To Advertise     Find Products

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