Abstract
Local damage to plants can induce fast systemic physiological changes through generation and propagation of electrical signals. It is known that electrical signals influence numerous physiological processes including photosynthesis; an increased plant tolerance to actions of stressors is a result of these changes. It is probable that parameters of electrical signals and fast physiological changes induced by these signals can be modified by the long-term actions of stressors; however, this question has been little investigated. Our work was devoted to the investigation of the parameters of burning-induced electrical signals and their influence on photosynthesis under soil water shortage in pea seedlings. We showed that soil water shortage decreased the amplitudes of the burning-induced depolarization signals (variation potential) and the magnitudes of photosynthetic inactivation (decreasing photosynthetic CO2 assimilation and linear electron flow and increasing non-photochemical quenching of the chlorophyll fluorescence and cyclic electron flow around photosystem I) caused by these signals. Moreover, burning-induced hyperpolarization signals (maybe, system potentials) and increased photosynthetic CO2 assimilation could be observed under strong water shortage. It was shown that the electrical signal-induced increase of the leaf stomatal conductance was a potential mechanism for the burning-induced activation of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation under strong water shortage; this mechanism was not crucial for photosynthetic response under control conditions or weak water shortage. Thus, our results show that soil water shortage can strongly modify damage-induced electrical signals and fast physiological responses induced by these signals.
Highlights
Long-distance electrical signals (ESs), which are induced by local actions of stressors and propagate into non-irritated zones, are an important mechanism of induction of systemic adaptation response in plants [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
We investigated the parameters of burning-induced ESs and photosynthetic responses, which were caused by these electrical signals, in pea seedlings under a soil water shortage because the water shortage can strongly influence photosynthesis and productivity in plants [84,85,86,87]
The current work was devoted to analysis of the influence of soil water shortage, which was a model of soil drought, on the burning-induced ESs and photosynthetic responses caused by these signals
Summary
Long-distance electrical signals (ESs), which are induced by local actions of stressors and propagate into non-irritated zones, are an important mechanism of induction of systemic adaptation response in plants [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. AP is a short-term depolarization signal (mainly, seconds and tens of seconds) [4,11,12,13] which is induced by stimuli with weak and moderate intensity and has a spike shape; its parameters are not dependent on the distance from the irritated zone. The generation of AP is mainly related to transient activation of calcium, anion, and potassium channels [12,14,15]; a short-term inactivation of H+ -ATPase can participate in this electrical response [16]. SP is a long-term hyperpolarization signal (mainly, minutes and tens of minutes) [7,17,18] which often accompanies VP and is caused by transient activation H+ -ATPase
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