CHARACEAN CELLS AS A TOOL FOR STUDYING ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANT-CELLS

Characean cells have contributed significantly to various areas of pla nt cell biology such as cell motility and membrane transport. Since ch aracean cells are very large, various kinds of operations can easily b e applied to them. Development of techniques of intracellular perfusio n and permeabilization of plasma membrane has facilitated studies on f unctions of the plasma membrane and the vacuolar membrane (or tonoplas t) which is specific to plant cells. The present article is aimed at r eviewing the contribution of characean cells to the study of electroph ysiological characteristics of plant membranes. Our attention was main ly focused on experiments using plasma membrane-permeabilized cells an d intracellularly perfused cells.