Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology

Biological cell membranes regulate the transfer of matter and informa tion between the intracellular and extracellular compartments as basic survival and maintenance functions for an organism: This volume contains a series of reviews that are concerned with how biological plasma membranes regulate the transport of chloride between the intracellular and extracellular compartments of a cell. This book is also an attempt to analyze the molecular basis for the movement of chloride across a cell membrane. This volume is devoted to a diversity of electrogenic chloride transport mechanisms in representative cell membranes of all living things. The first section of the book (Chaps. 1-4) focuses on mech anisms of primary active chloride transport (i. e. photon or A TP-driven), while the second section (Chaps. 5-6) centers on secondary active chloride transporters (symport and antiport) in both plant and animal plasma membranes. The last section, which comprises seven chapters (Chaps. 7-13), deals with chloride channels in cell membranes of prokaryocytes and eukaryocytes of most every phylum. It is hoped that with this particular ordering the reader can glean a telescopic view of the evolutionary history of the various electrogenic chloride transporters.