Electrophysiology of Woody Plants

A fundamental property of all living organisms is related to the continuous gathering of environmental information and the expression of physiological responses aimed to optimize its performance under new environmental conditions. In order to keep homeostasis, plants need to continuously gather information about its environment and to react physiologically, in order to synchronize its normal biological functions. Plant cells become bio electrochemically excited under the influence of environmental changes and the conduction of these electric potential modifications to distant plant organs have been widely reported. Electrochemical phenomena in plants have attracted researchers since the eighteenth century (Bertholon, 1783; Burdon-Sanderson, 1873; Darwin, 1875; Lemström, 1904; Bose, 1926); however, only in the last decade numerous papers related to plant electrophysiology have been published (for a comprehensive review on the subject see Volkov ́s book “Plant Electrophysiology, Theory and Methods”, 2006). Detection of electrical potentials in plants indicates that electrical signaling is a major system to transmit information over long distances throughout its organs. The reason why plants have developed pathways for electrical signal transmission is probably related to its need to respond rapidly to environmental stress factors (Fromm & Lautner, 2007). Electrophysiological studies of longdistance signals in plants and animals contribute to our knowledge of the living world by revealing important similarities and crucial differences between plants and animals, in an area that might be directly related to their different capacities to respond to environmental change.