Synchronized Chromatin Reorganization as a Key Biomarker in Anesthetic Effects on Plants

Anesthesia produces a reversible loss of responsiveness in animals by suppressing neuronal excitability and large-scale network integration, yet its effects on non-neuronal systems remain poorly defined. Plants lack neurons but possess excitable membranes, electrical signaling, and stress-responsive chromatin, making them an ideal model to study anesthetic action independent of neural circuitry. Using confocal and super-resolution microscopic imaging in Solanum lycopersicum and Solanum melongena roots and stems, we show that anesthesia disrupts multiple organelles like mitochondria, vesicle trafficking, microtubules, and chloroplast-nucleus association, mirroring many cellular effects described in neuronal tissues. These disruptions intensify under ATP inhibition (AI), indicating energetic vulnerability rather than neuron-specific mechanisms. In contrast, the nucleus remains structurally intact yet undergoes a striking, synchronized, non-local reorganization across cells. Euchromatin relocates to the nuclear periphery, while heterochromatin remains stable, revealing a targeted, ATP-independent chromatin reorganization unique to anesthesia. Our findings identify that nuclear-chromatin reorganization may conserve as a biomarker of the anesthetized state across neuronal and non-neuronal systems.