Cells Communication and Plant

Bioelectronics
Cell-cell Communication: The Cellular Internet

• Cell-to-cell communication is essential for multicellular

organisms
• Biologists have discovered some universal mechanisms of
cellular regulation
Evolution of Cell Signaling

• A signal-transduction pathway is a series of steps by which a

signal on a cell’s surface is converted into a specific cellular
response
• Signal transduction pathways convert signals on a cell’s
surface into cellular responses
• Pathway similarities suggest that ancestral signaling molecules
evolved in prokaryotes and have since been adopted by
eukaryotes
LE 11-2
Exchange of Receptor a factor
mating factors

a a

Yeast cell, a factor Yeast cell,

mating type a mating type a

Mating

a a

New a/a cell

a/a
Local and Long-Distance Signaling

• Cells in a multicellular organisms communicate by

chemical messengers
• Animal and plant cells have cell junctions that directly
connect the cytoplasm of adjacent cells
• In local signaling, animal cells may communicate by
direct contact
LE 11-3
Plasma membranes

Gap junctions Plasmodesmata

between animal cells between plant cells
Cell junctions

Cell-cell recognition
• In many other cases, animal cells communicate
using local regulators, messenger molecules that
travel only short distances
• In long-distance signaling, plants and animals use
chemicals called hormones
LE 11-4

Local signaling Long-distance signaling

Target cell Electrical signal Endocrine cell Blood

along nerve cell vessel
triggers release of
neurotransmitter

Neurotransmitter
Secreting Secretory diffuses across
cell vesicle synapse Hormone travels
in bloodstream
to target cells

Local regulator
diffuses through Target cell Target
extracellular fluid is stimulated cell

Paracrine signaling Synaptic signaling

Hormonal signaling
The Three Stages of Cell Signaling: A Preview

• Earl W. Sutherland discovered how the hormone

epinephrine acts on cells
• Sutherland suggested that cells receiving signals
went through three processes:
– Reception
– Transduction
– Response
LE 11-5_1

EXTRACELLULAR CYTOPLASM
FLUID
Plasma membrane

Reception Transduction

Receptor

Signal
molecule
LE 11-5_2

EXTRACELLULAR CYTOPLASM
FLUID
Plasma membrane

Reception Transduction

Receptor

Relay molecules in a signal transduction

pathway

Signal
molecule
LE 11-5_3

EXTRACELLULAR CYTOPLASM
FLUID
Plasma membrane

Reception Transduction Response

Receptor

Activation
of cellular
response
Relay molecules in a signal transduction
pathway

Signal
molecule
Concept 11.2: Reception: A signal molecule binds
to a receptor protein, causing it to change shape
• The binding between a signal molecule (ligand)
and receptor is highly specific
• A conformational change in a receptor is often the
initial transduction of the signal
• Most signal receptors are plasma membrane
proteins
Receptors in the Plasma Membrane

• Most water-soluble signal molecules bind to

specific sites on receptor proteins in the plasma
membrane
• There are three main types of membrane
receptors:
– G-protein-linked receptors
– Receptor tyrosine kinases

– Ion channel receptors

 G-protein-linked receptors

• A G-protein-linked receptor is a plasma

membrane receptor that works with the
help of a G protein
• The G-protein acts as an on/off switch: If
GDP is bound to the G protein, the G
protein is inactive
 Receptor tyrosine kinases

• Receptor tyrosine kinases are

membrane receptors that attach
phosphates to tyrosines
• A receptor tyrosine kinase can
trigger multiple signal transduction
pathways at once
 Ion channel receptors

• An ion channel receptor acts as

a gate when the receptor
changes shape
• When a signal molecule binds as
a ligand to the receptor, the gate
allows specific ions, such as Na+
or Ca2+, through a channel in the
receptor
 Concept 11.3: Transduction: Cascades of molecular interactions
relay signals from receptors to target molecules in the cell

• Transduction usually involves multiple steps

• Multistep pathways can amplify a signal: A few

molecules can produce a large cellular response

• Multistep pathways provide more opportunities for

coordination and regulation
Signal Transduction Pathways

• The molecules that relay a signal from receptor to

response are mostly proteins
• Like falling dominoes, the receptor activates another
protein, which activates another, and so on, until the
protein producing the response is activated

• At each step, the signal is transduced into a different

form, usually a conformational change
Protein Phosphorylation and Dephosphorylation

• In many pathways, the signal is transmitted by a

cascade of protein phosphorylations
• Phosphatase enzymes remove the phosphates

• This phosphorylation and dephosphorylation

system acts as a molecular switch, turning
activities on and off
LE 11-8
Signal molecule

Receptor
Activated relay
molecule

Inactive
protein kinase
1 Active
protein
kinase
1

Ph
Inactive

os
ph
protein kinase ATP

or
2 ADP Active P

yla
protein

tio
kinase

n
PP

ca
Pi 2

sc
ad
Inactive

e
protein kinase ATP
ADP Active P
3
protein
PP kinase
Pi 3

Inactive
protein ATP
ADP P
Active Cellular
PP protein response
Pi
LE 11-14
Growth factor
Reception
Receptor

Phosphorylation
cascade
Transduction

CYTOPLASM

Inactive
transcription Active
factor transcription
factor Response
P

DNA

Gene

NUCLEUS mRNA
Fine-Tuning of the Response

• Multistep pathways have two important benefits:

– Amplifying the signal (and thus the response)

– Contributing to the specificity of the response
Signal Amplification

• Enzyme cascades amplify the cell’s response

• At each step, the number of activated products is

much greater than in the preceding step
Plant Bioelectronics
 Plant Bioelectronics

• Bioelectronic technologies: complement conven3onal methods and offer

new possibili3es for real-3me monitoring and dynamic modula3on of plant
physiology.
• Bioelectroncis:
– Bioelectronic sensors can translate complex biological inputs to
electronic readout signals
– bioelectronic actuators can modulate biological networks via electronic
addressing
• Bioelectronics can also find applica3on in smart and precision agriculture.
• Sensors and actuators can be integrated in plants for monitoring and
modula3ng vital parameters
 Plant Biohybrids

• Plants are viewed from a technological perspective

• Plants are amazing machines powered by the sun that:
– can self- repair, sense, and adapt to their environment
– have hierarchical structures and complex biochemistry
• Plants are very resilient to a wide range of modifications, i.e. organic
electronic and carbon materials.
• Combination of functional properties of these materials with various plant
tissues enabled the development of biohybrids: energy and sensing
applications.
Bioelectronics:
• Self-organized electronics
• Biofuel cells
• Implantable device
• Plant wearables

Biohybrids:
• Triboelectric generators based on living plants for
the harvesting of mechanical energy of wind
• Nanosensor for plant and environmental
monitoring
Plant Anatomy

“What drives life is. . . a li0le

current, kept up by the
sunshine”

Albert Szent-Györgyi
(Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937
Plant and Electricity

• Plants do not have a nervous system

• Plants rely on other more distributed signal transduc5on pathways for
local and long- distance informa5on processing and communica5on
• Plant signaling pathways:
• chemical signals,
• electrical signals, and
• hydraulic signals
• Electrical signals in plants:
• Fast signals: ac4on poten4als
• Low signals: slow wave poten4als or varia4on poten4als
 Platn electrical signals:

• Plant electrical signals, an early event in the plant–stimulus interaction,

rapidly transmit information generated by the stimulus to other organs

• Plant electrical activity involves analysis at different scales, i.e., ion

channels, cells, tissues, organs, and the whole-plant level

• In recent years, many promising state-of-the-art technologies applicable to

study plant electrophysiology have emerged

J.-H. Li et al. Journal of Plant Physiology 261 (2021) 153418

Types and features of electrical signals in plants.

Drop in water availability (dashed blue line) can elicit a

change in surface potential that can last day.

Wounding or insect feeding leads to a slow-wave

potential in the scale of minutes

AcBon potenBals can be triggered by touching, in

thigmonasBc plants (scale of seconds)
Types and features of electrical signals in plants.
Typical techniques for plant electrical signal measurement at different scales.
Plant Wearables

Flexible plant wearable system for real time remote sensing of ambient
temperature and humidity.
 Monitoring of indoor ambient conditions for 2 days

Schema5cs of the sensing elements Photographs and optical micrographs of the device

Multiparameter monitoring system that is able to synchronize

its growth with the host leaf
BIOELECTRONIC DEVICES FOR MONITORING PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Plant electrophysiology: Commercial Devices (backyardbrains.com)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZRlhZVgpfw
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