Using the patch-clamp technique, we studied the action of charybdotoxin which blocks Ca2+-activated large-conductance K+ channels in animal tissue on the slow-activating (SV), Ca2+-activated cation channel in the vacuolar membrane of suspension-cells of Chenopodium rubrum L. The toxin reversibly reduced the vacuolar current with EC50 almost-equal-to 20 nM suggesting structural similarities between ion channels in animal and plant membranes.