Abstract
Non-thermal effects of direct electric fields and alternating electromagnetic fields (EMF) have been successfully used in a number of studies and applications in agriculture and biotechnology. Among different kinds of high strength EMF generators, the Tesla transformer (TT) is known as a widely applied, low cost, and troubleproof device, which generates EMF in the range of 2–8MHz. Despite of a number of developed and perspective applications of high strength EMFs in agriculture and biotechnology, the EMFs generated by TT, as well as the 1–50MHz range of high strength EMF still remain unexplored in the fields of plant physiology, ultrastructure studies and biochemistry. In this work, we have shown that TT-EMFs (4MHz) induced fast stem and petiole bending, disappearance of cell organelles, vacuolar membranes, and increase of a non-photochemical chlorophyll fluorescence quenching in petioles. It is intriguing that such fatal effects can be evoked in plants by EMFs which are well known as harmless for man at the applied strength and frequency.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
