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Influence of Electric Fields and Conductivity on Pollen Tube Growth assessed via Electrical Lab-on-Chip.

ABSTRACT: Pollen tubes are polarly growing plant cells that are able to rapidly respond to a combination of chemical, mechanical, and electrical cues. This behavioural feature allows them to invade the flower pistil and deliver the sperm cells in highly targeted manner to receptive ovules in order to accomplish fertilization. How signals are perceived and processed in the pollen tube is still poorly understood. Evidence for electrical guidance in particular is vague and highly contradictory. To generate reproducible experimental conditions for the investigation of the effect of electric fields on pollen tube growth we developed an Electrical Lab-on-Chip (ELoC). Pollen from the species Camellia displayed differential sensitivity to electric fields depending on whether the entire cell or only its growing tip was exposed. The response to DC fields was dramatically higher than that to AC fields of the same strength. However, AC fields were found to restore and even promote pollen growth. Surprisingly, the pollen tube response correlated with the conductivity of the growth medium under different AC frequencies--consistent with the notion that the effect of the field on pollen tube growth may be mediated via its effect on the motion of ions.

SUBMITTER: Agudelo C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4726441 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Influence of Electric Fields and Conductivity on Pollen Tube Growth assessed via Electrical Lab-on-Chip.

Agudelo Carlos C Packirisamy Muthukumaran M Geitmann Anja A

Scientific reports 20160125

Pollen tubes are polarly growing plant cells that are able to rapidly respond to a combination of chemical, mechanical, and electrical cues. This behavioural feature allows them to invade the flower pistil and deliver the sperm cells in highly targeted manner to receptive ovules in order to accomplish fertilization. How signals are perceived and processed in the pollen tube is still poorly understood. Evidence for electrical guidance in particular is vague and highly contradictory. To generate r ...[more]

PMID: 26804186

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Project description:Pulsed electric field treatment modalities typically utilize multiple pulses to permeabilize biological tissue. This electroporation process induces conductivity changes in the tissue, which are indicative of the extent of electroporation. In this study, we characterized the electroporation-induced conductivity changes using all treatment pulses instead of solely the first pulse as in conventional conductivity models. Rabbit liver tissue was employed to study the tissue conductivity changes caused by multiple, 100 μs pulses delivered through flat plate electrodes. Voltage and current data were recorded during treatment and used to calculate the tissue conductivity during the entire pulsing process. Temperature data were also recorded to quantify the contribution of Joule heating to the conductivity according to the tissue temperature coefficient. By fitting all these data to a modified Heaviside function, where the two turning points (E 0, E 1) and the increase factor (A) are the main parameters, we calculated the conductivity as a function of the electric field (E), where the parameters of the Heaviside function (A and E 0) were functions of pulse number (N). With the resulting multi-factor conductivity model, a numerical electroporation simulation can predict the electrical current for multiple pulses more accurately than existing conductivity models. Moreover, the saturating behavior caused by electroporation can be explained by the saturation trends of the increase factor A in this model. The conductivity change induced by electroporation has a significant increase at about the first 30 pulses, then tends to saturate at 0.465 S/m. The proposed conductivity model can simulate the electroporation process more accurately than the conventional conductivity model. The electric field distribution computed using this model is essential for treatment planning in biomedical applications utilizing multiple pulsed electric fields, and the method proposed here, relating the pulse number to the conductivity through the variables in the Heaviside function, may be adapted to investigate the effect of other parameters, like pulse frequency and pulse width, on electroporation.

Project description:Pulsed electric fields with microsecond pulse width (?sPEFs) are used clinically; namely, irreversible electroporation/Nanoknife is used for soft tissue tumor ablation. The ?sPEF pulse parameters used in irreversible electroporation (0.5-1 kV/cm, 80-100 pulses, ?100 ?s each, 1 Hz frequency) may cause an internal field to develop within the cell because of the disruption of the outer cell membrane and subsequent penetration of the electric field. An internal field may disrupt voltage-sensitive mitochondria, although the research literature has been relatively unclear regarding whether such disruptions occur with ?sPEFs. This investigation reports the influence of clinically used ?sPEF parameters on mitochondrial respiration in live cells. Using a high-throughput Agilent Seahorse machine, it was observed that ?sPEF exposure comprising 80 pulses with amplitudes of 600 or 700 V/cm did not alter mitochondrial respiration in 4T1 cells measured after overnight postexposure recovery. To record alterations in mitochondrial function immediately after ?sPEF exposure, high-resolution respirometry was used to measure the electron transport chain state via responses to glutamate-malate and ADP and mitochondrial membrane potential via response to carbonyl cyanide-p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone. In addition to measuring immediate mitochondrial responses to ?sPEF exposure, measurements were also made on cells permeabilized using digitonin and those with compromised cytoskeleton due to actin depolymerization via treatment with the drug latrunculin B. The former treatment was used as a control to tease out the effects of plasma membrane permeabilization, whereas the latter was used to investigate indirect effects on the mitochondria that may occur if ?sPEFs impact the cytoskeleton on which the mitochondria are anchored. Based on the results, it was concluded that within the pulse parameters tested, ?sPEFs alone do not hinder mitochondrial physiology but can be used to impact the mitochondria upon compromising the actin. Mitochondrial susceptibility to ?sPEF after actin depolymerization provides, to our knowledge, a novel avenue for cancer therapeutics.

Dataset Information

Influence of Electric Fields and Conductivity on Pollen Tube Growth assessed via Electrical Lab-on-Chip.

Publications

Influence of Electric Fields and Conductivity on Pollen Tube Growth assessed via Electrical Lab-on-Chip.

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