Kb. Hebbar et al., ACTION-POTENTIAL - A POSSIBLE SIGNAL IN ROOT TO SHOOT COMMUNICATION CAUSED BY WATER-DEFICIT AROUND ROOTS OF SUNFLOWER SEEDLING, Current Science, 66(12), 1994, pp. 936-938
Exposure of sunflower roots to polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) induced
osmotic: stress caused a rapid depolarization of surface electrical po
tential at the shoot apex within 25 seconds. It was found that while t
he leaf water potential and the osmotic potential in control seedlings
showed no variation during the entire period of experimentation, the
leaf wafer potential in polyethylene glycol treated seedlings started
decreasing after 2 min of treatment without any marked change in the o
smotic potential. Similarly, the stomatal resistance in control seedli
ngs remained constant during the course of experimentation but the pol
yethylene glycol treatment affected the stomatal resistance within 30
seconds and it continued to increase 3 min after the treatment. All th
ese events occur in a time scale of seconds to minutes and in a sequen
ce. It is concluded that the action potential acts as a signal in root
-to-shoot communication under osmotic stress.