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Electrical Long-Distance Signaling in Plants

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Long-Distance Systemic Signaling and Communication in Plants

Part of the book series: Signaling and Communication in Plants ((SIGCOMM,volume 19))

Abstract

In higher plants at least three different types of electrical long-distance signaling exist: action potential (AP), variation potential (VP), and system potential (SP), all of which have their own characteristics concerning their generation, duration, amplitude, velocity, and propagation. Whereas both AP and VP are due to a transient depolarization of the plasma membrane, the SP is based on hyperpolarization. For more than 100 years the AP is known and described for some specialized plants such as the Venus flytrap. Meanwhile, all three types of electrical signaling have been shown for many common plants, monocots as well as dicots, indicating that the capability to generate long-distance electrical signals is not the exception but a general physiological feature of plants. In spite of this, positive proofs for the involvement of these kinds of electrical signaling in the induction of many different plant responses to (a)biotic stresses or in developmental processes still wait to be established.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Botanisches Institut I, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen, Germany

    Matthias R. Zimmermann

  2. Bioorganische Chemie, Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Ökologie, Hans-Knöll-Str 8, Jena, Germany

    Axel Mithöfer

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  1. Matthias R. Zimmermann
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Correspondence to Axel Mithöfer .

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  1. University of Bonn, IZMB, Kirschallee 1, Bonn, 53115, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    František Baluška

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Zimmermann, M.R., Mithöfer, A. (2013). Electrical Long-Distance Signaling in Plants. In: Baluška, F. (eds) Long-Distance Systemic Signaling and Communication in Plants. Signaling and Communication in Plants, vol 19. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36470-9_15

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