Phytosensors and phytoactuators

Alexander G. Volkov, Vladislav S. Markin

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

3 Scopus citations


Plants continuously sense a wide variety of perturbations and produce various responses known as tropisms in plants. It is essential for all plants to have survival sensory mechanisms and actuators responsible for a specific plant response process. Plants are ideal adaptive structures with smart sensing capabilities based on different types of tropisms, such as chemiotropism, geotropism, heliotropism, hydrotropism, magnetotropism, phototropism, thermotropism, electrotropism, thigmotropism, and host tropism. Plants can sense mechanical, electrical and electromagnetic stimuli, gravity, temperature, direction of light, insect attack, chemicals and pollutants, pathogens, water balance, etc. Here we show how plants sense different environmental stresses and stimuli and how phytoactuators response to them. Plants generate various types of intracellular and intercellular electrical signals in response to these environmental changes. This field has both theoretical and practical significance because these phytosensors and phytoactuators employ new principles of stimuli reception and signal transduction and play a very important role in the life of plants.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationPlant Electrophysiology
Subtitle of host publicationSignaling and Responses
PublisherSpringer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Number of pages34
ISBN (Electronic)9783642291104
ISBN (Print)3642291090, 9783642291098
StatePublished - Feb 1 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Medicine(all)
  • Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)


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