Excitable membranes and action potentials in paramecia: An analysis of the electrophysiology of ciliates

The ciliate Paramecium caudatum possesses an excitable cell membrane whose action potentials (APs) modulate the trajectory of the cell swimming through its freshwater environment. While many stimuli affect the membrane potential and trajectory, students can use current injection and extracellular ionic concentration changes to explore how APs cause reversal of the cell's motion. Students examine these stimuli through intracellular recordings, also gaining insight into the practices of electrophysiology. Paramecium's large size of around 150 μm, simple care, and relative ease to penetrate make them ideal model organisms for undergraduate students' laboratory study. The direct link between behavior and excitable membranes has thought provoking evolutionary implications for the study of paramecia. Recording from the cell, students note a small resting potential around -30 mV, differing from animal resting potentials. By manipulating ion concentrations, APs of the relatively long length of 20-30 ms up to several minutes with depolarizations maxing over 0 mV are observed. Through comparative analysis of membrane potentials and the APs induced by either calcium or barium, students can deduce the causative ions for the APs as well as the mechanisms of paramecium APs. Current injection allows students to calculate quantitative electric characteristics of the membrane. Analysis will follow the literature's conclusion in a V-Gated Ca⁺⁺ influx and depolarization resulting in feedback from intracellular Ca⁺⁺ that inactivates V-Gated Ca⁺⁺ channels and activates Ca-Dependent K⁺ channels through a secondary messenger cascade that results in the K+ efflux and repolarization.