NA-dependent uptake of phenylalanine in the midgut of a cockroach (blabera-gigantea)

A net absorption of sodium ions and of l-phenylalanine, in the absence of chemical gradients, occurs across the isolated midgut of the cockroach Blabera gigantea. Both sodium and amino acid net fluxes were abolished by the haemolymphatic addition of the Na-K ATPase inhibitor ouabain, at a concentration 1 mM. A purified fraction of brush border membranes, prepared from the midgut tissue by Ca-precipitation, was used to investigate the occurrence of a cotransport system in the luminal membrane of the cockroach enterocyte. An inwardly directed Na gradient (100 mM outside the vesicles, 0 mM inside) drives the uphill movement of phenylalanine into the vesicular space, whilst other monovalent cations fail to induce the concentrative uptake of the amino acid. Moreover, the amino acid uptake seems to be dependent on the transmembrane potential, since inwardly directed gradients of different sodium salts determine a decreasing rate of phenylalanine uptake in agreement with the presumptive permeabilities of Na counterions. These data suggest the presence of a Na-phenylalanine cotransport system located on the brush border membrane of B. gigantea midgut. © 1986 Springer-Verlag.