Spatio-temporal mapping of variation potentials in leaves of Helianthus annuus L. seedlings in situ using multi-electrode array

Abstract

Damaging thermal stimuli trigger long-lasting variation potentials (VPs) in higher plants. Owing to limitations in conventional plant electrophysiological recording techniques, recorded signals are composed of signals originating from all of the cells that are connected to an electrode. This limitation does not enable detailed spatio-temporal distributions of transmission and electrical activities in plants to be visualised. Multi-electrode array (MEA) enables the recording and imaging of dynamic spatio-temporal electrical activities in higher plants. Here, we used an 8 × 8 MEA with a polar distance of 450 μm to measure electrical activities from numerous cells simultaneously. The mapping of the data that were recorded from the MEA revealed the transfer mode of the thermally induced VPs in the leaves of Helianthus annuus L. seedlings in situ. These results suggest that MEA can enable recordings with high spatio-temporal resolution that facilitate the determination of the bioelectrical response mode of higher plants under stress.

High-resolution non-contact measurement of the electrical activity of plants in situ using optical recording

“…17 and 18 , Supplementary Table 2 , Supplementary results ). It was found that propagation of the electrical activity occurs at a mean velocity in the range of 0.70 ± 0.10 mm/s to 1.75 ± 0.14 mm/s, consistent with previous reports, 13 50 51 52 53 .…”

ROS, Calcium, and Electric Signals: Key Mediators of Rapid Systemic Signaling in Plants

“…Transmission of the signal between mesophyll and phloem is thought to be mediated by bundle-sheath cells (Szechy nska-Hebda et al, 2010;Fromm et al, 2013). Such electrical signal propagation along the vascular tissue in the leaves of Helianthus annuus was recently shown by spatio-temporal surface recording (Zhao et al, 2014). Nevertheless, the identity of the specific ion channels mediating various types of long-distance electrical signals is currently unknown.…”

Expression and testing in plants of ArcLight, a genetically–encoded voltage indicator used in neuroscience research

“…One advantage of GEVIs as voltage indicators is that they can be fused to defined membrane targeting motifs, thus allowing electrophysiological analysis of internal cellular membranes that are largely inaccessible to classical tools for measuring membrane potential. Although the membrane potentials of multiple cells can in principle be measured using microelectrode arrays [ 16 , 17 ], GEVIs also permit noninvasive detection of simultaneous changes in membrane potentials in populations of cells in intact tissues and organs [ 6 ].…”