Plants are endowed with mechanosensitive channels such as MSL that transduce mechanical oscillations into electrical signals. In static condition, the cell membrane of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana is hardly solicited, and the MSL10 ’switch’ shows little activity (left-hand side). When the membrane is subjected to an oscillatory pressure mimicking the effect of the wind, the switch becomes more active (oscillation, right-hand side). This is shown schematically on the diagram in the bottom right of the figure.
Plants are endowed with mechanosensitive channels such as MSL that transduce mechanical oscillations into electrical signals. In static condition, the cell membrane of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana is hardly solicited, and the MSL10 'switch' shows little activity ( left-hand side ). When the membrane is subjected to an oscillatory pressure mimicking the effect of the wind, the switch becomes more active (oscillation, right-hand side). This is shown schematically on the diagram in the bottom right of the figure. Jean-Marie Frachisse and Daniel Tran, Institut de Biologie Integrative de la Cellule (CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay). Although plants are anchored to the ground, they spend most of their lifetime swinging in the wind. Like animals, plants have 'molecular switches' on the surface of their cells that transduce a mechanical signal into an electrical one in milliseconds.
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