High cytosolic pH inhibits Ca uptake by Myxicola axon mitochondria

Microliter samples of cytoplasm containing mitochondria were aspirated from giant axons of the marine annelid Myxicola infundibulum into polyethylene tubes. The small molecular constituents within these cytoplasmic samples were controlled by a dialysis capillary with a 6,000 molecular weight cut off. The negative log of the calcium ion activity (pCa) (6.72 +/- 0.03, n = 40) and, in some cases, the pH (7.51 +/- 0.01, n = 7) of the samples were monitored with ion-sensitive microelectrodes. Adding 5 mM succinate or 5 mM ATP at pH 7.5 caused the Ca activity in the cytoplasm to drop from an experimentally elevated value of approximately 10 microM to below 1 microM. This decrease could be inhibited with ruthenium red, suggesting a mitochondrial mechanism. Ca uptake, following the addition of either succinate or ATP, was reversibly slowed when the cytoplasmic pH was elevated to approximately 8.3. When ruthenium red was added after mitochondria had taken up Ca, the Ca activity in the extramitochondrial cytoplasm gradually increased suggesting ongoing release of Ca from storage sites. Increasing the cytoplasmic pH to approximately 8.5 in the presence of ruthenium red did not increase the ongoing release over that found with ruthenium red alone. The apparent washout of Ca from the energy-independent, nonmitochondrial Ca buffers was only slightly affected by pH (pH 7.5-8.5). It is concluded that elevating intracellular pH to 8.3 slows the Ca uptake by mitochondria. Thus cytoplasmic pH may have a function in regulating mitochondrial Ca metabolism and/or extramitochondrial calcium activity.