Amphotericin B (AmB) is an antifungal polyene for which the most accepted mode of action is formation of protein-like ion channels in the cell membrane. Patch-clamp research on Candida albicans protoplasts carried out in the outside-out configuration showed that application of 0.05 and 0.1 μM AmB caused a decrease in seal resistance. Such a phenomenon can be correlated with a decrease in membrane tightness. AmB applied at a 0.05 μM concentration also caused a decrease in the number of active TOK1 (two-pore outward rectifiers) potassium channels, but did not significantly change their open probability. The results indicate that in C. albicans protoplast AmB causes a decrease in cell membrane integrity by interaction with its lipid phase but not with ion channels. Fluorescence microscopy techniques showed that AmB treatment, in clinical concentrations, had no effect on the percentage of PI-positive protoplasts. AmB treatment in the concentrations tested did not cause a rapid reduction of the number of C. albicans protoplasts. However, there was a significant loss of replication competency and numerous morphological and physiological disorders, including cytoplasm shrinking, abnormal morphology of the nucleus and mitochondria, a sudden decrease in the MTT reduction level and oxidative stress. Our results show that the induction of yeast cell death by AmB, at therapeutic doses, is a multistage and long-term process involving multiple intracellular pathways.

Glass microelectrodes were inserted into Physcomitrella patens gametophyte leaves and action potentials (APs) were recorded in response to sudden illumination as well as after darkening, i.e., when the dark-induced membrane depolarization crossed a threshold. Application of 5 mM La 3+ (a calcium channel inhibitor), 10 mM TEA + (a potassium channel inhibitor) and increased free Ca 2+ resulted in a loss of excitability. Lack of Ca 2+ in the external medium did not prevent APs from occurring. It was concluded that during light-dark-induced excitation of Physcomitrella patens, APs might rely upon calcium influxes from the intracellular compartments. APs were not blocked by the proton pump inhibitors (DES, DCCD), although the resting potential (RP) diminished significantly.

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Patch-clamp studies carried out on the tonoplast of the moss Physcomitrella patens point to existence of two types of cation-selective ion channels: slowly activated (SV channels), and fast-activated potassium-selective channels. Slowly and instantaneously saturating currents were observed in the whole-vacuole recordings made in the symmetrical KCl concentration and in the presence of Ca2+ on both sides of the tonoplast. The reversal potential obtained at the KCl gradient (10 mM on the cytoplasmic side and 100 mM in the vacuole lumen) was close to the reversal potential for K+ (EK), indicating K+ selectivity. Recordings in cytoplasm-out patches revealed two distinct channel populations differing in conductance: 91.6 ± 0.9 pS (n = 14) at −80 mV and 44.7 ± 0.7 pS (n = 14) at +80 mV. When NaCl was used instead of KCl, clear slow vacuolar SV channel activity was observed both in whole-vacuole and cytoplasm-out membrane patches. There were no instantaneously saturating currents, which points to impermeability of fast-activated potassium channels to Na+ and K+ selectivity. In the symmetrical concentration of NaCl on both sides of the tonoplast, currents have been measured exclusively at positive voltages indicating Na+ influx to the vacuole. Recordings with different concentrations of cytoplasmic and vacuolar Ca2+ revealed that SV channel activity was regulated by both cytoplasmic and vacuolar calcium. While cytoplasmic Ca2+ activated SV channels, vacuolar Ca2+ inhibited their activity. Dependence of fast-activated potassium channels on the cytoplasmic Ca2+ was also determined. These channels were active even without Ca2+ (2 mM EGTA in the cytosol and the vacuole lumen), although their open probability significantly increased at 0.1 μM Ca2+ on the cytoplasmic side. Apart from monovalent cations (K+ and Na+), SV channels were permeable to divalent cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+). Both monovalent and divalent cations passed through the channels in the same direction—from the cytoplasm to the vacuole. The identity of the vacuolar ion channels in Physcomitrella and ion channels already characterised in different plants is discussed.

The mode of transmission of signals between plant cells is an important aspect of plant physiology. The main role in generation of long-distance signals is played by changes in the membrane potential and cytoplasm calcium concentration, but the relation between these responses evoked by the same stimuli in the same plant remains unknown. As one of the first plant which colonized lands, the moss Physcomitrella patens is a suitable model organism for studying the evolution of signaling pathways in plants. Here, by application of glutamate as a stimulus, we demonstrated that electrical but not calcium signals can be true carriers of information in long-distance signaling in Physcomitrella. Generation of electrical signals in a form of propagating transient depolarization seems to be dependent on the opening of calcium channels, since the responses were reduced or totally blocked by calcium channel inhibitors. While the microelectrode measurements demonstrated transmission of electric signals between leaf cells and juvenile cells (protonema), the fluorescence imaging of cytoplasmic calcium changes indicated that calcium response occurs only locally - at the site of glutamate application, and only in protonema cells. This study indicates different involvement of glutamate-induced electrical and calcium signals in cell-to-cell communication in these evolutionarily old terrestrial plants.