Putrescine Channels in the Plasma Membrane of Arabidopsis thaliana

The patch-clamp technique was used in the whole-cell configuration to study plasma membrane channels permeable to the diamine putrescine in protoplasts isolated from cultured cells of Arabidopsis thaliana L. Under our experimental conditions, no channels selectively mediating putrescine influx were observed. Inward K+ channels showed a low permeability to putrescine, the permeability ratio of putrescine relative to K+ being around 0.1. Further characterization of the previously identified outward channels mediating putrescine efflux (R. Colombo, R. Cerana, N. Bagni 1992] Biochem Biophys Res Commun 182: 1187-1192) indicated that their activity was regulated by the overall ion concentration of the external medium.