Changes in the electrical polarity of tobacco cells following the application of weak external currents

Abstract

Weak externally applied electric currents changed the natural electrical pattern surrounding cells from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) suspension cultures. The artificial currents were applied transversely to short filaments of cells placed between a microelectrode lose to the filament surface and a large platinum electrode some distance away. The natural current patterns before and after electrical treatment were measured with a vibrating probe. Significant effects were confined to the cell adjacent to the microelectrode. Currents with densities of 100 μA · cm⁻² at the cell surface applied for 10 min or 3 μA · cm⁻² for several hours caused a localized increase in the natural current entering the part of the cell which had been nearest the positive electrode. There was no corresponding local increase in current leaving from the opposite side of the cell. Instead, the extra current appeared to leave over a relatively large area. The overall effect was a tendency for the cell to repolarize transversely with a greater proportion of its transcellular currents flowing in the direction of the current applied. The effect was measurable for several hours after the external current was discontinued and may be evidence for a natural mechanism by which neighbouring cells entrain one another's polarities during differentiation. The effect of external currents on cells growing in a 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) medium (which suppresses differentiation) was qualitatively the same as on cells in an indole-3-acetic acid medium (which promotes differentiation). If anything, the response was greater in 2,4-D, implying that the disruptive effect of 2,4-D on cell and tissue polarization is not a consequence of it preventing cells sensing the transcellular currents of their neighbours.