Abstract
The activity of calcium-activated chloride channels is controlled through the complex interaction of cellular mechanisms affecting calcium entry, buffering, and extrusion, and an unknown stoichiometric relation between intracellular Ca concentration and Cl channel activation. Here, we show that calcium-activated chloride current [ICl(Ca)] in cone photoreceptors is also highly sensitive to external pH, being strongly reduced by acidification and enhanced by alkylinization of the bathing medium. We propose that this modulation is accounted for by the pH sensitivity of Ca channel activation and permeation, already well characterized in other cells, which we now extend to cone photoreceptor Ca channels. Acidification of the external medium from a control pH of 7.4 shifts the Ca channel activation range positively by about 10 mV at pH 6.8, reducing the magnitude of calcium current with a consequent reduction of chloride current. Alkylinization shifts the Ca channel activation range negatively by about 8 mV at pH 8 and produces larger calcium currents during step depolarizations that in turn elicit larger chloride tail currents. Modulation of ICl(Ca) by pH suggests other consequences of the pH-induced shift in Ca channel gating, for one, modification of Ca-dependent transmitter release, which could be especially significant in photoreceptors where the cell's operating voltage range overlaps only the lower end of the Ca channel activation range.