Membrane excitability: made temperature-dependent by mutations
Satow, Y.; Chang, S.Y.; Kung, C.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 71(7): 2703-2706
1974
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-8446 PMID: 4527893 Document Number: 75731
Three mutants of Paramecium aurelia with genetic lesions at two unlinked loci lost their ability to generate action potentials when grown at high temperatures. Action potentials found at room temperature were slightly aberrant. Kinetics of phenotypic changes after temperature shifts showed that excitation is not immediately sensitive to temperature change in these mutants. The initiation of an action potential must rely on many different gene products (presumably membrane proteins) which are open to modification by conditional as well as unconditional mutations.