SUMMARY1. Single twitch muscle fibres isolated from frogs and toads were microinjected with the Ca2+-sensitive bioluminescent protein aequorin. The fibres contracted normally and emitted flashes of light (aequorin responses) in response to stimulation for many hours thereafter.2. No luminescence was detected from healthy fibres at rest. 3. The aequorin diffused from the site of injection at a rate consistent with a diffusion coefficient of 5 x 10-8 cm2/sec.4. During trains of isometric contractions there was a progressive reduction in both the amplitude and the rate of decline of the aequorin response, an observation consistent with the theory that Ca is redistributed from sites of release to sites of sequestration under such circumstances.5. In isometric tetani light emission continued to rise long after the plateau of force had been achieved. This and the fact that the amplitude of the tetanic aequorin response increased steeply with increasing stimulus frequency suggest that in tetani the sarcoplasmic [Ca2+] may normally be above the level required to saturate the contractile apparatus.6. Both in twitches and in tetani the amplitude of the aequorin response increased slightly and then decreased substantially as the fibre was stretched progressively beyond slack length.7. In potassium contractures the luminescent and mechanical responses first became detectable at about the same [K+], but for equivalent force luminescence was less intense than in twitches. The aequorin response was biphasic in solutions of high [K+].8. Exposure of the fibre to Ca 2+-free solutions had no influence on either the mechanical or the luminescent responses in twitches. In Ca 2+-free solutions tetanic aequorin responses tended not to be maintained as well as normally, suggesting that intracellular Ca stores do become somewhat depleted.9. In twitches the amplitude of the aequorin response probably reflects the amount of Ca2+ liberated into the cytoplasm rather than a [Ca2+] in equilibrium with the myofilaments. Changes in the rate of decay of the aequorin response may reflect changes in the rate of Ca sequestration by the sarcoplasmic reticulum.

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Voltage-dependent gating was investigated in a recombinant human skeletal muscle Cl- channel, hCIC-1, heterologously expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) cells. Gating was found to be mediated by two qualitatively distinct processes. One gating step operates on a microsecond time scale and involves the rapid rearrangement of two identical intramembranous voltage sensors, each consisting of a single titratable residue. The second process occurs on a millisecond time scale and is due to a blocking-unblocking reaction mediated by a cytoplasmic gate that interacts with the ion pore of the channel. These results illustrate a rather simple structural basis for voltage sensing that has evolved in skeletal muscle Cl- channels and provides evidence for the existence of a cytoplasmic gating mechanism in an anion channel analogous to the "ball and chain" mechanism of voltage-gated cation channels.

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Myotonia is a condition characterized by impaired relaxation of muscle following sudden forceful contraction. We systematically screened all 23 exons of the CLCN1 gene in 88 unrelated patients with myotonia and identified mutations in 14 patients. Six novel mutations were discovered: five were missense (S132C, L283F, T310M, F428S and T550M) found in heterozygous patients, and one was a nonsense mutation (E193X) in a homozygous patient. While five patients had a clinical diagnosis of myotonia congenita, the patient with the F428S mutation exhibited symptoms characteristic of paramyotonia congenita--a condition usually thought to be caused by mutations in the sodium channel gene SCN4A. Nevertheless, no mutations in SCN4A were identified in this patient. The functional consequences of the novel CLCN1 sequence variants were explored by recording chloride currents from human embryonic kidney cells transiently expressing homo- or heterodimeric mutant channels. The five tested mutations caused distinct functional alterations of the homodimeric human muscle chloride ion channel hClC-1. S132C and T550M conferred novel hyperpolarization-induced gating steps, L283F and T310M caused a shift of the activation curve to more positive potentials and F428S reduced the expression level of hClC-1 channels. All showed a dominant-negative effect. For S132C, L283F, T310M and T550M, heterodimeric channels consisting of one wild-type (WT) and one mutant subunit exhibited a shifted activation curve at low intracellular [Cl(-)]. WT-F428S channels displayed properties similar to WT hClC-1, but expressed at significantly lower levels. The novel mutations exhibit a broad variety of functional defects that, by distinct mechanisms, cause a significant reduction of the resting chloride conductance in muscle of heterozygous patients. Our results provide novel insights into functional alterations and clinical symptoms caused by mutations in CLCN1.