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Active and Passive Electrical Signaling in Plants

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Progress in Botany

Part of the book series: Progress in Botany ((BOTANY,volume 76))

Abstract

Electrical signaling on long and short distances exists in plants. There are three major types of electrical signaling in plants and animals: action potentials, electrotonic potentials, and graded potentials. The action potential in plants can propagate over the entire length of the cell membrane and along the conductive bundles of tissue with constant amplitude, duration, and speed. Electrotonic potentials exponentially decrease with distance. An intermediate place takes so-called graded potentials that involve the process of electrical excitation but do not evolve into full-fledged action potentials. A graded potential is an electrical signal that corresponds to the size of the stimulus. Electrical signals can propagate along the plasma membrane on short distances in plasmodesmata, and on long distances in a phloem. In this chapter, we discuss electrical signaling in the Venus flytrap and Mimosa pudica.

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Acknowledgments

This review is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CBET-1064160 and in part by the U.S. Army Research Office under contract/grant number W911NF-11-1-0132.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Oakwood University, 7000 Adventist Blvd., Huntsville, AL, 35896, USA

    Alexander G. Volkov

  2. Department of Neurology, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390-8813, USA

    Vladislav S. Markin

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  1. Alexander G. Volkov
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Correspondence to Alexander G. Volkov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. TU Darmstadt FB Biologie, Darmstadt, Germany

    Ulrich Lüttge

  2. Universität Bielefeld W4-105 Lehrstuhl Experimentelle Ökologie, Bielefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Wolfram Beyschlag

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Volkov, A.G., Markin, V.S. (2015). Active and Passive Electrical Signaling in Plants. In: Lüttge, U., Beyschlag, W. (eds) Progress in Botany. Progress in Botany, vol 76. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08807-5_6

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