Plants as environmental biosensors

Plants are continuously exposed to a wide variety of perturbations including variation of temperature and/or light, mechanical forces, gravity, air and soil pollution, drought, deficiency or surplus of nutrients, attacks by insects and pathogens, etc., and hence, it is essential for all plants to have survival sensory mechanisms against such perturbations. Consequently, plants generate various types of intracellular and intercellular electrical signals mostly in the form of action and variation potentials in response to these environmental changes. However, over a long period, only certain plants with rapid and highly noticeable responses for environmental stresses have received much attention from plant scientists. Of particular interest to our recent studies on ultra fast action potential measurements in green plants, we discuss in this review the evidence supporting the foundation for utilizing green plants as fast biosensors for molecular recognition of the direction of light, monitoring the environment, and detecting the insect attacks as well as the effects of pesticides, defoliants, uncouplers, and heavy metal pollutants.