Physiological and Genetic Analyses of Arabidopsis Thaliana Growth Responses to Electroporation

Stress-induced effect on Arabidopsis thaliana seeds due to high-intensity electrical pulses is described. The pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment system was constructed under the concept of electroporation to deliver 10-nanosecond, 5-Hz pulse train with the energy density per pulse up to 4 kJ${\cdot}$kg$^{-1}$. The analysis of the growth responses revealed that the optimal specific energy of ${\sim} 1$ kJ${\cdot}$ kg$^{-1}$ delivered the positive effect on the early growth with significant enhancement in the germination percentage and leaf area expansion. The same treatment energy, in addition, contributed to the higher level of the gene expression at nearly tenfold (PAD3 and PR1) compared with untreated control. Such optimistic evidences suggest that the PEF treatment may have practical applications such as to stimulate the delayed germination in preserved economical crops and should be preferred over chemical treatments due to its short-term effect.

I. Introduction

Plants, BY being immobile, essentially need sensitive detection and adaptation mechanisms to survive various external perturbations induced, in general, by fluctuations in environmental conditions. Depending on the type of such abiotic stressors, the stress impact may trigger a variety of plant adaptation responses, thus inducing changes at genetic level, concerning the plant growth and productivity [1]. Recognizing of environmental stresses may occur at the point of initial stress perception by different means of reception, such as through the changes in membrane fluidity and cytoskeleton reorganization [2]–[6]. The mechanisms incessantly proceed with the modulation of the stress signals to cellular signals, transduction of the cellular signals to the nucleus, transcriptional control of stress-inducible gene expressions, and the cooperation of genes to allow stress tolerance [7]. By achieving tolerance against distinct stresses, plants, in essence, require to significantly evolve complex molecular processes. Accordingly, analysis of gene function in response to abiotic factors is relatively essential to improve an insight of plant defense mechanisms.