The interaction of electricity and development in plants

A review of the literature indicates the majority of cell electrical resistance, and therefore cell potential difference development, occurs at the plasmalemma. The literature suggests that currents developing through previously non-polar fucoid eggs following fertilization affect localized electrophoretic movement of cell cytoplasmic and cell wall particles necessary for polar development of the embryo. The geoelectric potential which develops upon geotropic stimulation of shoots or roots is apparently a secondary effect of gravity perception and its effects on auxin transport and the subsequent curvature response. Light regulation of a membrane-associated photoreversible phytochrome chromophore apparently affects protein conformational changes which may alter membrane permeabilities and result in observable, and apparently only artifactual cell potential and charge changes (among numerous other responses).