Natural H+ Currents Traverse Growing Roots and Root Hairs of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Abstract

With the aid of an extracellular vibrating electrode, natural electric fields were detected and measured in the medium near growing roots and root hairs of barley seedlings. An exploration of these fields indicates that both the root as a whole, as well as individual root hairs, drive large steady currents through themselves. Current consistently enters both the main elongation zone of the root as well as the growing tips of elongating root hairs; it leaves the surface of the root beneath the root hairs. These currents enter with a density of about 2 microamperes per square centimeter, leave with a density of about 0.5 to 1 microampere per square centimeter, and total about 30 nanoamperes.Responses of the natural fields to changes in the ionic composition of the medium as well as observations of the pH pattern in the medium near the roots (made with bromocresol purple) together indicate that much of the current consists of hydrogen ions. Altogether, H(+) ions seem to leak into growing cells or cell parts and to be pumped out of nongrowing ones.