Current Science

Supriyo Kumar Das ¹, Debasish Dutta ², Saranya Naskar ², Snigdha Palchaudhury ¹, Rabindranath Gayen ², Abhijit Dey ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Geology, Presidency University, College Street 86/1, Kolkata 700 073, IN
2 Department of Physics, Presidency University, College Street 86/1, Kolkata 700 073, IN
3 Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, College Street 86/1, Kolkata 700 073, IN

Abstract

Jagadish Chandra Bose observed rhythmic electrical oscillations or pulsations in living cells of the innermost layer of cortex, and linked them to upward pumping of water into the xylem¹. Bose measured bioelectric potentials in Indian telegraph plant Desmodium (Bon Charal or forest churl) using the cresograph, a self-invented instrument, that consisted of an electric probe, a galvanometer, an electric dry cell and a thin copper wire. He connected the galvanometer to one point of a potted plant and the probe to another point of the plant, and slowly inserted the probe into the stem. The galvanometer showed momentary deflection for a longer period after the probe reached the innermost layer of the cortex. Bose observed a physiological motif and interlinked the measured pulsations in cellular electric potentials with oscillations in cell turgor pressure².

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