Seasonal changes in plasma membrane glucose transporters enhance cryoprotectant distribution in the freeze-tolerant wood frog

One of the critical adaptations for freeze tolerance by the wood frog, Rana sylvatica, is the production of large quantities of glucose as an organ cryoprotectant during freezing exposures. Glucose export from the liver, where it is synthesized, and its uptake by other organs is dependent upon carriermediated transport across plasma membranes by glucose-transporter proteins. Seasonal changes in the capacity to transport glucose across plasma membranes were assessed in liver and skeletal muscle of wood frogs; summer-collected (June) frogs were compared with autumn-collected (September) cold-acclimated (5°C for 3 -4 weeks) frogs. Plasma membrane vesicles prepared from liver of autumn-collected frogs showed 6-fold higher rates of carrier-mediated glucose transport than vesicles from summer-collected frogs, maximal velocity (V,,,,,) values for transport being 72 + 14 and 12.0 f 2.9 nmol mg protein-' . s-I, respectively (at 10°C). However, substrate affinity constants for carrier-mediated glucose transport (K1,,) did not change seasonally. The difference in transport rates was due to greater numbers of glucose transporters in liver plasma membranes from autumn-collected frogs. The total number of transporter sites, as determined by cytochalasin B binding, was 8.5-fold higher in autumn than in summer. Glucose transporters in wood frog liver membranes cross-reacted with antibodies to the rat GluT-2 glucose transporter (the mammalian liver isoform), and Western blots further confirmed a large increase in transporter numbers in liver membranes from autumnversus summer-collected frogs. By contrast with the liver, however, there were no seasonal changes in glucose-transporter activity or numbers in plasma membranes isolated from skeletal muscle. We conclude that an enhanced capacity for glucose transport across liver, but not muscle, plasma membranes during autumn cold-hardening is an important adaptation that anticipates the need for rapid export of cryoprotectant from liver during natural freezirig