Long-Distance Signal Transmission in Trees - Communication in Plants: Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life - page 340

“slow-wave”, which appears as a wave of negativity with a variable length,
shape, amplitude and propagation velocity, capable of passing through
dead tissues (Roblin and Bonnemain 1985; Malone 1996; Mancuso 1999)
and linked with xylem tension (Mancuso 1999), and briefer and faster sig-
nals, called action potentials (AP), considered to be real self-propagated
electrical signals (Pickard 1973; Malone and Stankovic 1991; Stankovic et
al. 1997). It is also suggested that APs play a major role in intercellular and
intracellular communication and for regulation of physiological processes
at the molecular and the organism level (Davies 1987). Mancuso (1999)
focused on differences between VPs and APs in their mechanisms of prop-
agation.Infact,anAPcannotpassthroughadeadregionofatissue,isstill
presentinplantsatsaturatinghumidityandtheamplitudeandpropagation
velocities of APs are fairly constant through the shoots.
Therefore, APs are propagating electrical signals and not merely a lo-
cal response to a hydraulic dispersal. Though the pathway of APs is not
completely clarified, intracellular recordings tend to locate the activity in
the phloem parenchyma (Samejima and Sibaoka 1983; Fromm and Span-
swick 1993) or in the phloem sieve tubes (Wildon et al. 1992; Fromm and
Eschrich 1988a). Numerous papers have been published on the study of
VPs and APs. For example, Davies (2004) reviewed the subject, answering
to the question "What properties do electrical signals have that chemical
signals do not have?" with four terms: rapidity , ubiquity , information ,and
transience .
Researchers have rarely focused on woody plants ( Tilia and Prunus ,
Boari and Malone 1993; Salix , Fromm and Spanswick 1993; Vitis ,Mancuso
1999) although it is in such plants that the need for rapid and efficient
signals other than chemicals becomes more obvious. Instead, they have
been mainly limited to studying the electrical signals in herbaceous or
sensitive plants like Mimosa pudica and related species because of their
visible response to the stimuli (Ricca 1916; Houwink 1935; Weintraub 1952;
Sibaoka 1969; Fromm and Spanswick 1993; Malone 1994b; Koziolek et al.
2004).
Since electrical signals have been shown to be widespread in the plant
kingdom (Pickard 1973), it is important to study the physiological processes
that might be under their control. Recently, Koziolek et al. (2004) described
M. pudica responses in light and dark reactions of photosynthesis that in-
dicate electrical signals play an important role in triggering photosynthetic
response across long distances within the plant, giving evidence for a link
between electrical signalling and photosynthetic response of plants. Elec-
trical signals also regulate assimilate partitioning in M. pudica (Fromm
and Eschrich 1988b; Fromm 1991), showing that APs trigger sucrose un-
loading from the pulvinar phloem and cause the turgor-dependent leaf
movements.