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Addition of membrane vesicles prepared from the electric organ of Torpedo californica to the aqueous phase of a planar phospholipid bilayer system results in a large (up to 3 orders of magnitude) stepwise increase in membrane conductance. This increased conductance consists of two components: an ohmic background "leak" and a voltage-dependent, ideally anion-selective conductance. The anion conductance is low at voltages greater than +10 mV, rises sharply as the voltage becomes negative, and then saturates as the voltage becomes highly negative. (The trans side of the bilayer, to which vesicles are not added, is defined as ground.) Under high amplification, the anion conductance shows single channel behavior with a voltage-independent, single channel conductance of 13.9 +/- 0.1 pmho in 0.1 M Cl-. Furthermore, the anion channel, but not the background conductance, is inhibited by submillimolar concentrations of SITS and DIDS, two well known anion transport inhibitors. The inhibition is seen only when SITS or DIDS is added to the cis side. No cholinergic agents tested have any effect on the channel.
White et al. (Mon,) studied this question.