Junctional and extrajunctional membrane channels activated by GABA in locust muscle fibres

Abstract

Iontophoretic application of GABA to voltage-clamped locust muscle fibres has demonstrated the presence of both extrajunctional and junctional GABA receptors. Extrajunctional GABA receptors are distinct from extrajunctional glutamate receptors which also occur in these muscle fibres. Inward GABA currents are nonlinearly dependent on membrane potential. Analysis of membrane current noise produced by iontophoretic GABA application shows that for junctional and extrajunctional GABA receptors the mean channel lifetime is 3-4 ms and the single-channel conductance is approximately 22 pS at ‒ 80 mV ( T = 21 °C). The mean lifetime of the inhibitory channel decreases with membrane hyper-polarization as previously demonstrated for glutamate-sensitive excitatory channels in locust muscle fibres.