Jpn. J. Protozool. Vol. 41, No. 1. (2008)

1

Review

Chemosensory Transduction in Paramecium

Megan VALENTINE, Junji YANO, and Judith L. VAN HOUTEN
Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405 USA

Key words: Ciliate, paramecium, chemoreceptors, cilia, membrane potential

This review is dedicated to Dr. Mihoko Takahashi

The behavior of ciliated free living protozoa
has fascinated scientists since the nineteenth century. Jennings described in his important treatiseon the “Behavior of Lower Organisms” (Jennings,
1906) his observations of Paramecium as it is attracted to CO2 or weak acids and repelled fromhigh amounts of NaCl and other salts. He very
astutely described the reaction to stimuli throughthe “avoiding reaction,” a turn in the swimming
path that is elicited as a cell leaves an attractant orenters a repellent. He also had the insight that thecell responds to changes in its chemical environment. Given that firm foundation, the study of
responses to chemical stimuli was continued byDryl who screened many compounds for chemoresponses of P. caudatum (e.g. Dryl, 1963; see Dryl,
1976 for review). As did Jennings, Dryl found thatcells change direction at the boundary of drops
when leaving an attractant or moving into relative
repellent, leading Dryl to propose that the strengthof a repellent is proportional to the frequency of
avoiding reactions it elicited.
*Corresponding author
Tel/Fax: 802-656-0452 /802-656-2914
E-mail: Judith.vanhouten@uvm.edu(Received: 15 March 2008)

Interestingly, Nakatani measured velocity ofswimming and found that cells increase the speedof forward movement in an attractant (Nakatani,1968), but he incorporated Dryl’s view of avoiding
reactions into his model for chemosensory behavior. Even though Dryl and Nakatani disagreed
upon the classification of some attractants andrepellents (e.g. ethanol), there was agreement fromvery early days of the study of chemosensorytransduction in Paramecium that the key to the
behavior of the population (attraction and repulsion) was the modification of the frequency ofturning and swimming speed. (See Van Houten
and Preston, 1988 for review).
The studies of the physiology of P. caudatum
and later P. tetraurelia made it possible to understand the action potential that underlies the avoiding reaction. As the work of Naitoh, Kaneko, andEckert demonstrated (reviewed in Machemer,
1988a), the voltage gated calcium channels of thecilia open with a depolarizing receptor potential,
bringing Ca2+ into the cilia which modify theirpower stroke to cause the transient change inswimming direction (Machemer, 1988b; Eckert,
1972; Preston and Saimi, 1990; Eckert and Brehm,1979). As Ca2+ is sequestered or removed, thecell’s swimming changes to a pivot in place andfinally resolves into forward swimming. The re-2

原生動物学雑誌 第 41 巻 第 1 号 2008 年

sult of the action potential and change in beat form
is an abrupt change in swimming direction, a turnin the swimming path which is the avoiding reaction described by Jennings.
Machemer examined the relationship between frequency of ciliary beat and membrane
properties, including membrane potential. He
found a correlation between a small increase incilia beat frequency with an increase in negative
membrane potential from rest, and a small decrease in ciliary beat upon a small depolarizationfrom rest (Machemer, 1974). A larger depolarization would trigger a calcium action potential andalso an increase in the reversed power stroke kindof beating. These changes in ciliary beat frequency directly correlate with increased speed anddecreased speed when there are small hyper- anddepolarizations of the membrane potential.
As described above, the behavior of cells as
they enter relative repellents (i.e. leave attractants
or enter repellent areas) is characterized by frequent turns, avoiding reactions, implying that repellents depolarize the cells and attractants hyperpolarize them. Nakatani’s observation of fasterswimming in attractants is consistent with this,because hyperpolarization in attractants would leadto faster ciliary beating.
Van Houten and colleagues began studies ofP. tetraurelia chemoresponses in the early 1970’s
with the development of a simple T-maze assay(Van Houten et al., 1978 and 1982). Unlike Drylor Nakatani, Van Houten measured both turning
frequency and speed in order to assess the possibilities of both a klinokinesis (turning frequency)
mechanism as in bacterial chemotaxis and an orthokinesis (speed modulation) mechanism for attraction and repulsion (Van Houten et al., 1978).
Van Houten and workers confirmed that organic
attractants like acetate and lactate caused cells toswim smoothly and fast, and repellents likequinidine or high salt, caused cells to swim slowly
and turn frequently (Van Houten, 1978). Interestingly, if the behaviors were pushed to an extreme,such as extremely fast swimming in high pH or
extremely slow net movement due to frequent
turns in high BaCl2, the cells would be repelled by
fast swimming or attracted by being trapped in a
frenzy of turning (Figure 1). A mutant that was
repelled by the attractant acetate was found to
swim extremely fast in the acetate solution, confirming that cells could be repelled by a swimming
speed mechanism (Van Houten, 1977).
Van Houten argued for a chemokinesis mecha-

nism of attraction and repulsion as opposed to achemotaxis mechanism which implies an orientation and directed movement toward a source. Instead, most organic stimulus attractants, like acetate, attract a population of paramecia by a biased
random walk in which cells swim in long mean
free paths when swimming up a gradient of attractant, and when a spontaneous turn sends themdown or across the gradient, they have a shortmean free path before there is another turn. Van
Houten and colleagues also took advantage ofPawn mutants of P. tetraurelia that cannot turn forlack of functioning ciliary calcium channels(Saimi and Kung, 1982). These mutants became
important tools because, despite not being able toturn, they could still be repelled by stimuli thatcaused extreme behavior (Van Houten, 1978). For
example, very high pH caused Pawns to be repelled probably by the very fast swimming it elicited, as it did in wild type cells. Van Houten compared wild type to Pawn swimming behavior andchemoresponse from real data and those from a

Fig 1. from Van Houten, 1979 (a) Graphical description of membrane potential control of chemokinesis. Change of membrane potential (ΔEm) fromcontrol (at origin) is plotted against the index ofchemokinesis; Iche > 0.5 indicates attraction; < 0.5
indicates repulsion. As chemical stimuli change Em
relative to control, animals will be attracted or repelled, depending on the magnitude and direction of
the Em change. (b) Experimental data plotted as
ΔEm produced by the attractant or repellents versus
Iche. Scale of ΔEm is different for depolarizing an
hyperpolarizing stimuli.

Jpn. J. Protozool. Vol. 41, No. 1. (2008)

computer simulation. In this manner Van Houten
and Van Houten (1982) identified the componentsthat were essential for attraction and repulsion.
The most crucial included the ability to turn, adaptation, and an immediate response upon leaving
an area of attractant. When extreme conditions
were examined, the ability to modulate speed became very important.
Van Houten and colleagues put forward andexperimentally confirmed a hypothesis of membrane potential control of chemokinesis (Van
Houten, 1978, 1979). Since that time, the hypothesis has been tested with additional stimuli
and mutants, all consistent with small membrane
hyperpolarizations in organic attractants, and small
depolarizations in repellent stimuli such as
quinindine (Van Houten, 1979; Preston and Van
Houten, 1987a,b) (Figure 2).
Over time, Van Houten proposed that there are

Figure 2 from Van Houten, 1979
Membrane Potentials in: a. Attractant Type I (Acetate)b. Repellent Type II (KOH) c. Repellent Type I(Quinidine-HCl) d. Attractant Type II (BaCl2 relative
to KCl)3

at least three signal transduction pathways in P.
tetraurelia (Figure 3). Two initiate at receptors(e.g. for folate, cyclic AMP, acetate, glutamate)that all hyperpolarize the cell initially by activatinga K conductance, and secondarily by activating aplasma membrane calcium pump (PMCA) to sustain the hyperpolarization. The two signal transduction pathways differ in the second messenger
that activates the PMCA: calcium/calmodulin for
folate, for example, and cyclic AMP activation of
PKA for glutamate (Yang et al., 1997; Wright etal., 1993, 1994; Elwess et al., 1997). The third
pathway requires no receptor, but still initiates a K
conductance to hyperpolarize the cell. Ammonium
chloride crosses the membrane as ammonia andrapidly alkalinizes the cell; each pulse of ammonium chloride onto the cell results in a pulse ofincreased pH (Davis et al., 1994). More details of
the subsequent studies that support this model are
included in the review of the field below.
Since these beginnings, there have been morestudies of chemoresponse in P. tetraurelia and P.
caudatum. Oami examined the responses of P.
caudatum to bitter substances, such as quinine,chloroquine, brucine, and strychnine (1996 a,b).
These act as repellents and the application of bitter
substances in low concentrations elicited avoidance responses. Oami used a mutant CNR(Takahashi, 1978) that, like the Pawn mutant of P.
tetraurelia, is defective in the voltage gated calcium conductances of the cilia to examine membrane potential changes in the absence of interfering action potentials (1998). Using this approach,Oami showed that the membrane potential changes
elicited were biphasic, that is, an initial depolarization followed by a hyperpolarization (1998). These
bitter substances caused measurable changes inmembrane potential when applied to either end of
the cell, a depolarization upon anterior application
and a transient hyperpolarization with posterior
application implying that their receptors are not
evenly distributed much as the mechano receptors
are not evenly distributed (Naitoh and Eckert,
1969). When the chloroquine, strychnine, andbrucine were applied in succession or in mixtures,the cells’s responses were diminished implyingthat they have a common receptor or other transduction component. An exception to this was quinine, which appears to have a separate receptor or
pathway.
The neurotransmitter GABA has been found to
be secreted by P. primaurelia (Ramoino et al.,2003). The extensive pharmacology of GABA

4

原生動物学雑誌 第 41 巻 第 1 号 2008 年

FolateAcetateHyperpolarization

Fast, smooth swimming

Glutamate

Kg, PMCA, Ca/CM or PKA

Cyclic AMP
BiotinAmmonium

Hyperpolarization

Fast, smooth swimming

Fig. 3. Chemoresponse Summary
Paramecium tetraurelia show attraction to bacterial metabolites – folate, acetate, glutamate, cyclic AMP, biotin,
and ammonium among others.

receptors has allowed for the distinction between
GABAA and GABAB receptor effect on P. primaurelia swimming behavior. Agonists of
GABAA cause a depolarization of P. primaurelia,possibly through a Cl- efflux, and opening of thevoltage gated calcium channels that cause action
potentials and turns (Bucci et al., 2005). Agonistsof GABAB reduce the backward swimming behavioral response to depolarization through a G protein dependent pathway and inhibition of a dihydropyridine sensitive calcium channel (Ramoino etal., 2003).
Preston and Usherwood (1988 a,b) describedattraction to L-glutamate, hyperpolarization in submicromolar amounts of glutamate, and binding of
3
H-glutamate to P. tetraurelia cilia. More recently, the Van Houten lab identified a candidate
gene for an L- glutamate chemoreceptor using
RNA interference (RNAi) (Jacobs, 2007). When agene for a P. tetraurelia ortholog of an NMDAlike receptor was down-regulated using RNAi,chemoresponse to L-glutamate was specificallylost, while other chemoresponses were not affected, including that to D-glutamate. Downregulation of other candidate genes at the level ofmRNA did not have any effect on chemoresponse
to glutamate. In the L-glutamate chemosensorytransduction pathway, the receptor couples by an
unknown means to an adenylyl cyclase. Cyclic
AMP rises very rapidly when cells are exposed to
glutamate, presumably activating protein kinase A(PKA) because kinase inhibitors specifically affectchemoresponse to L-glutamate but not to otherstimuli (Yang et al., 1997; Smith et al., 1987).
RNAi for PKA catalytic subunit also specificallydecreases the response to L-glutamate, suggestingthat this is the kinase involved (Pantel, 2007).
PKA activation of the plasma membrane calcium
pumps (PMCAs) would explain the sustained
hyperpolarizing conductance and sustained membrane hyperpolarization that we observe with constant stimulus application (Wright et al., 1993,
1994).
The Van Houten lab has pursued the folate
chemoreceptor for many years (e.g. Schulz et al.,
1984; Sasner and Van Houten, 1989), and recently,
using homology cloning and bioinformatics of theannotated genome, found sequences that could betested using RNAi (Weeraratne, 2007). Down
regulation of the mRNA for the putative folate
chemoreceptor sequence led to specific loss of
folate chemoresponse. Using an antibody raised
against a portion of the receptor, we also demonstrated that RNAi caused a loss of the protein fromthe cell body membrane and binding sites on thecells. Interestingly, the protein is not in the ciliary
membrane, which agrees with the previous binding
studies (Schulz et al., 1984).
The folate chemoreceptor is glycosylphosphatidyl inositol (GPI) anchored, as predictedby bioinformatics and shown more directly byWestern blots using anti-cross reacting determinant antibody against the GPI anchor (Weeraratne,2007). Many Paramecium surface proteins areJpn. J. Protozool. Vol. 41, No. 1. (2008)

GPI anchored, and our studies using RNAi, blocking antibodies against GPI anchored proteins andheterologous folate receptors predicted that thefolate chemoreceptor would be a peripheral GPI
anchored protein (Paquette et al., 2001; Yano etal., 2003).
Another set of studies that have provided important insights into how chemical stimuli aresensed and result in a motor response come fromthe experiments with biotin and acetate as attractants (Bell et al., 1998; 2007). Although receptors
for biotin and acetate were characterized but not
purified, it was still possible to use these two very
different stimuli that do not interfere with eachother to examine the responses of cells as they
enter or leave areas of the stimulus. The key tothese studies was the use of various mutants thathave defects in a conductance, thanks to the workof Kung and colleagues (Saimi and Kung, 1987;
Preston and Saimi, 1990). The results with thesemutants showed us that attraction to acetate depends strongly on the on-response and a calcium
activated K conductance (IK(Ca, h)) while attraction
to biotin depends on the on-response as well, andthe opening of IK(Ca h or d), but also the off-response
depolarization, which is initiated by a calcium
conductance large enough to open other calcium
dependent cation channels (Bell et al., 2007).
Lipid raft microdomains also figure into
chemosensory transduction probably as organizing
areas for the signaling components (Pike, 2003).
Sucrose gradient studies and disruption of sterol
content of the membranes (and hence of lipid raft
structure which depends on sterols) show that signaling components like the adenylyl cyclase,
PMCA2, and the GPI anchored folate receptor arefound in lipid rafts and the disruption of rafts withmethyl-β-cyclodextrin affects chemoresponse,
especially to glutamate and cyclic AMP(Chandran, 2004; Pan, 2007; Ray, 2008). It appears that receptors and PMCAs and second messenger enzymes for chemosensory transduction
may be organized into different lipid domains andthat microdomains of the cilia also differ fromthose on the cell body membrane.
There are still other studies of Paramecium
responses to nucleotide triphosphates that we canonly briefly mention here (Clark et al., 1993,1997 ; Mimikakis et al., 1998; Shering and Plattner, 2003). Likewise, we cannot review the studiesof ammonium chloride chemoresponse (Davis etal., 1998) or the evidence for G proteins (De Ondarza et al., 2003). Nonetheless, hopefully this5

brief review shows that the field of chemosensorytransduction in Paramecium is characterized bysignificant studies that are providing important
insights into the proteins and signal transduction
pathways involved in responses to a large variety
of stimuli. What these studies have in common is
the inclusion of multiple approaches that Paramecium as a model organism makes possible: biochemistry of membranes and second messengers,
behavioral analysis, and electrophysiology. Now
that the genome is sequenced and annotated, progress in the field begun by Jennings in 1906 will
accelerate in this new century.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTNIH grants R01 GM 59988, R01 DC 00721,
NCI
P30CA22435
forsequencing,
2
P20 RR016435-06 for imaging.

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