THE EXCITABILITY OF PLANT-CELLS - WITH A SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON CHARACEAN INTERNODAL CELLS

This review describes the basic principles of electrophysiology using the generation of an action potential in characean internodal cells as a pedagogical tool. Electrophysiology has proven to be a powerful too l in understanding animal physiology and development, yet it has been virtually neglected in the study of plant physiology and development. This review is, in essence, a written account of my personal journey o ver the past five years to understand the basic principles of electrop hysiology so that I can apply them to the study of plant physiology an d development. My formal background is in classical botany and cell bi ology. I have learned electrophysiology by reading many books on physi cs written for the lay person and by talking informally with many pati ent biophysicists. I have written this review for the botanist who is unfamiliar with the basics of membrane biology but would like to know that she or he can become familiar with the latest information without much effort. I also wrote it for the neurophysiologist who is profici ent in membrane biology but knows little about plant biology (but may want to teach one lecture on ''plant action potentials''). And lastly, I wrote this for people interested in the history of science and how the studies of electrical and chemical communication in physiology and development progressed in the botanical and zoological disciplines.