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Brush border membrane potentials (Vm), intracellular K+ activity (aiK) and alanine uptake were measured in different parts of villi in mid-jejunal tissue taken from hamsters fed different amounts of food at high and low environmental temperatures. Basal villus enterocytes (Y cells) were found to have lower values for Vm and aiK than upper villus enterocytes (O cells). Alanine uptake was confined to O cells. The position on the villus where values for Vm and aiK changed, and where alanine uptake could first be seen to take place, depended on the energy intake and environmental temperature at which hamsters were kept. Na+-dependent alanine uptake and Vm were both higher in O cells of hamsters fed 10 kcal day-1 at 30 degrees C (10 k/30 degrees C) compared with animals fed 30 kcal day-1 at an environmental temperature of 12 degrees C (30 k/12 degrees C hamsters). The rates at which enterocytes migrated along the crypt-villus axis, measured separately in thymidine-labelling experiments, were 6.9 and 16.1 micron h-1 for 10 k/30 degrees C and 30 k/12 degrees C hamsters respectively. Both Vm and aiK were estimated, from these measurements, to have increased significantly by the time enterocytes became 30 h old. Alanine uptake began 15 h later. Neither of these parameters were influenced by previous adaptation conditions. The close temporal and variable positional relationship found between changes in aiK and onset of transport suggests that early changes in electrolyte composition might initiate a second phase of development enabling the enterocyte to absorb nutrients. The possibility that other ions besides K+ might also be involved in this aspect of regulation is also discussed.