Active Transport of Potassium and Oxygen Consumption in the Isolated Midgut of Hyalophora Cecropia

Abstract

1. Flux measurements with 42K reveal that in the isolated midgut of Hyalophora cecropia 90 to 100 % of the short-circuit current is carried by the active transport of potassium from the blood-side to the lumen. 2. When K-transport is strongly depressed, either by withholding potassium from the blood side or by imposing a large positive potential on the lumen, the oxygen uptake of the isolated gut remains virtually unchanged. If the K-transport were to be energized by the negligible increase in oxygen uptake about 40 µ-equiv. of potassium would have to be transported for every µ-equiv. of extra oxygen taken up. This ratio of K-transport to oxygen uptake is thermodynamically impossible. 3. The ratio of potassium transported to total oxygen consumed when the midgut is bathed with 32 mM potassium on both sides is about 1.3 at temperatures of 25° and 15° C. The ratio must be smaller at lower potassium concentrations and is 2.0 at 73.5 mM-K, which may be approaching the maximum value. 4. Although the oxygen uptake is independent of the K-transport, the reverse is not true. There is a close dependency of K-transport on oxygen consumption. 5. K-transport by the midgut contrasts with Na-transport by the frog skin because Na-transport stimulates oxidative metabolism whereas K-transport does not. Evidently the coupling of transport to energy supply is different in the two systems.