Recent studies of insect epithelial transport have shown that ion transport in the great majority of cases depends not on the ubiquitous Na+/K+-ATPase, which energizes most vertebrate ion-transport systems, but on a vacuolar-type proton pump (V-ATPase; Wieczorek et al. 1991; Klein, 1992; Harvey, 1992; Wieczorek, 1992). In the new model for insect epithelia, cation transport is achieved by a combination of a V-type H+-ATPase and Na+/H+ and/or K+/H+ antiporters on the apical plasma membrane (Harvey, 1992).

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