Control of intracellular pH: Predominant role of oxidative metabolism, not proton transport, in the eukaryotic microorganism neurospora

Abstract

Recessed-tip microelectrodes were used to measure internal pH (pHi) in the fungus Neurospora, and to examine the response of pHi to several kinds of stress: changes of extracellular pH (pHo), inhibition of the principal proton pump in the plasma membrane, and inhibition of respiration. Under control conditions, at pHo = 5.8, pHi in Neurospora is 7.19 ± 0.04. Changes of pH. between 3.9 and 9.3 affect pHi linearly but with a slope of only -0.1 unit pHi per unit pH., stable pHi being reached within 3 min of changed pH. Despite a postulated high passive permeability of the Neurospora membrane to protons (Slayman, 1970), neither active nor passive H+ transport appears critical to pHi because (a) specific inhibition of the proton pump by orthovanadate has little effect on pHi, and (b) cytoplasmic acidification produced by respiratory blockade is unaffected by the size or direction of proton gradient. To convert measured changes in pHi into net proton fluxes, intracellular buffering capacity (βi) was measured by the weak acid/weak base technique. At pHi = 7.2, βi was (-)35 mmol H+ (liter cell water)-1 (pH unit)-1, but βi increased substantially in both the acid and alkaline directions, which suggests that amino acid side chains are the principal source of buffer. © 1982, Rockefeller University Press., All rights reserved.