Ion channels in plants: From bioelectricity,via signaling,to behavioral actions

In his recent opus magnum review paper published in the October issue of Physiology Reviews, Rainer Hedrich summarized the field of plant ion channels.¹ He started from the earliest electric recordings initiated by Charles Darwin of carnivorous Dionaea muscipula,^1,2 known as Venus flytrap, and covered the topic extensively up to the most recent discoveries on Shaker-type potassium channels, anion channels of SLAC/SLAH families, and ligand-activated channels of glutamate receptor-like type (GLR) and cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (CNGC).¹     

A reference curve for axial bioelectric potentials in rabbit tibia

A high coefficient of variation is characteristic of the bioelectric potentials recorded from living long bones. As a consequence, the data collected from animal and human experiments are difficult to use in practical ways. A distribution curve for bone bioelectric potentials has been calculated using polynomial regression analysis to process the voltage values recorded on the whole length of rabbit tibiae, with reference electrodes positioned in three different points of the bone. The distribution curve so obtained is presented to fulfill the need for a reference curve for the bioelectric potentials recorded from rabbit tibial surfaces.