Potentiel de repos | EPFL Graph Search

Le potentiel de repos membranaire (RMP, pour l'anglais resting membrane potential) est le potentiel électrochimique de membrane de la membrane plasmique d'une cellule excitable lorsqu'elle est au repos ; c'est un des états possibles du potentiel de la membrane. En introduisant une électrode de mesure à l'intérieur de la cellule (voir la méthode de patch-clamp), on constate une différence de potentiel : la face interne de la membrane est négative par rapport à une électrode de référence placée sur la face externe de la membrane. Cette différence de potentiel est due à la séparation de charges de part et d'autre de la membrane, provoquée par un courant permanent d'ions (majoritairement potassium) à travers des canaux ioniques. Ce courant dissipe la force électro-osmotique causée par des différences de concentration entre différentes espèces ioniques. Cette différence de concentration est maintenue en permanence par l'activité consommatrice en énergie des pompes sodium-potassium. L

Kinetics of xylem loading, membrane potential maintenance, and sensitivity of K+-permeable channels to reactive oxygen species: physiological traits that differentiate salinity tolerance between pea and barley

Amandine Massart

Salt sensitive (pea) and salt tolerant (barley) species were used to understand the physiological basis of differential salinity tolerance in crops. Pea plants were much more efficient in restoring otherwise depolarized membrane potential thereby effectively decreasing K+ efflux through depolarization-activated outward rectifying potassium channels. At the same time, pea root apex was 10-fold more sensitive to physiologically relevant H2O2 concentration and accumulated larger amounts of H2O2 under saline conditions. This resulted in a rapid loss of cell viability in the pea root apex. Barley plants rapidly loaded Na+ into the xylem; this increase was only transient, and xylem and leaf Na+ concentration remained at a steady level for weeks. On the contrary, pea plants restricted xylem Na+ loading during the first few days of treatment but failed to prevent shoot Na+ elevation in the long term. It is concluded that superior salinity tolerance of barley plants compared with pea is conferred by at least three different mechanisms: (1) efficient control of xylem Na+ loading; (2) efficient control of H2O2 accumulation and reduced sensitivity of non-selective cation channels to H2O2 in the root apex; and (3) higher energy saving efficiency, with less ATP spent to maintain membrane potential under saline conditions.

Wiley-Blackwell2014

Numerical methods for nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations with traveling wave solutions

Antoine Giovanni Imboden

In this report, we first introduce operator splitting as a way to solve nonlinear reaction-diffusion PDEs. We then present a flux-limiting technique for anisotropic diffusion problems that allows to recover the discrete maximum principle. Finally, we implement a simple action potential model, which allows us to represent the evolution of the transmembrane potential of a stimulated cell, and investigate the effect of anisotropic diffusion on the positivity of this potential.

2014

Single-molecule motions of oligoarginine transporter conjugates on the plasma membrane of Chinese hamster ovary cells

Hui Wang

To explore the real-time dynamic behavior of molecular transporters of the cell-penetrating-peptide (CPP) type on a biological membrane, single fluorescently labeled oligoarginine conjugates were imaged interacting with the plasma membrane of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The diffusional motion on the membrane, characterized by single-molecule diffusion coefficient and residence time (tau R), defined as the time from the initial appearance of a single-molecule spot on the membrane (from the solution) to the time the single molecule disappears from the imaging focal plane, was observed for a fluorophore-labeled octaarginine (a model guanidinium-rich CPP) and compared with the corresponding values observed for a tetraarginine conjugate (negative control), a lipid analogue, and a fluorescently labeled protein conjugate (transferrin-Alexa594) known to enter the cell through endocytosis. Imaging of the oligoarginine conjugates was enabled by the use of a new high-contrast fluorophore in the dicyanomethylenedihydrofuran family, which brightens upon interaction with the membrane at normal oxygen concentrations. Taken as a whole, the motions of the octaarginine conjugate single molecules are highly heterogeneous and cannot be described as Brownian motion with a single diffusion coefficient. The observed behavior is also different from that of lipids, known to penetrate cellular membranes through passive diffusion, conventionally involving lateral diffusion followed by membrane bilayer flip-flop. Furthermore, while the octaarginine conjugate behavior shares some common features with transferrin uptake (endocytotic) processes, the two systems also exhibit dissimilar traits when diffusional motions and residence times of single constructs are compared. Additionally, pretreatment of cells with cytochalasin D, a known actin filament disruptor, produces no significant effect, which further rules out unimodal endocytosis as the mechanism of uptake. Also, the involvement of membrane potential in octaarginine-membrane interaction is supported by significant changes in the motion with high [K(+)] treatment. In sum, this first study of single transporter motion on the membrane of a living cell indicates that the mode by which the octaarginine transporter penetrates the cell membrane appears to either be a multimechanism uptake process or a mechanism different from unimodal passive diffusion or endocytosis.

2008

Single-molecule motions of oligoarginine transporter conjugates on the plasma membrane of Chinese hamster ovary cells

Hui Wang

2008