Soybean electrophysiology: effects of acid rain

Abstract Acid rain is a serious environmental problem with impact on agriculture, forestry and human health. Plants generate several types of extracellular observable electrical events, which have been correlated to environmental stress. Acid rain induces fast action potentials and decreases the variation potential in green plants. This is the first attempt in plant electrophysiology of high-speed non-invasive automatic measurements of action potentials induced by simulated acid rain. The speed of the propagation of action potentials in soybean, induced by spraying H 2 SO 4 or HNO 3 on the soybean or by acidification of soil, varies from 0.5 to 5 m/s. The duration of a single action potential after spraying the soybean with simulated acid rain varies from milliseconds to 0.5 ms by H 2 SO 4 and 0.4 ms by HNO 3 . The duration of single action potential after soil acidification varies from 20 ms to 0.8 ms after treatment with H 2 SO 4 and 0.5 ms after treatment with HNO 3 . Certain forms of aluminum compounds become more soluble in acidified soils. Addition of water soluble aluminum salts induces ultra fast action potentials in soybean with an amplitude of 60 mV and duration times of 0.5 ms (AlCl 3 ), 0.25 ms (Al(NO 3 ) 3 ), and 0.3 ms (Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 ). The automatic measurements of the electrical potential difference can be effectively used in environmental plant electrophysiology for the studying of molecular mechanisms of ion transport and the influence of external stimuli on plants. Results of this work can help in development of new environmental biosensors based on electrical phenomena in plants.

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