Multicellular sensory hairs were excised from the leaf of Venus's flytrap, and the sensory cells were identified by a destructive dissection technique. The sensory layer includes a radially symmetrical rosette of 20–30 apparently identical cells, and the sensory cells are organized in a plane normal to the long axis of the sensory hair. The sensory cells were probed with intracellular glass electrodes. The resting membrane potential was about -80 mv, and the response to a mechanical stimulus consisted of a graded response and an "action potential." The action potential appears to be similar to the action potential which propagates over the surface of the leaf. In the absence of stimulation, the upper and lower membranes of a single sensory cell behave in an electrically symmetrical fashion. Upon stimulation, however, the upper and lower membranes become electrically asymmetrical. Limiting values for the response asymmetry were calculated on the hypothesis of an electrical model consistent with the histology of the sensory cells.
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1 July 1970
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July 01 1970
Response Properties of a Sensory Hair Excised from Venus's Flytrap
R. M. Benolken,
R. M. Benolken
From the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas 77025, and the Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa 1, Canada
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S. L. Jacobson
S. L. Jacobson
From the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas 77025, and the Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa 1, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
R. M. Benolken
From the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas 77025, and the Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa 1, Canada
S. L. Jacobson
From the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas 77025, and the Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa 1, Canada
Received:
October 10 1969
Online ISSN: 1540-7748
Print ISSN: 0022-1295
Copyright © 1970 by The Rockefeller University Press
1970
J Gen Physiol (1970) 56 (1): 64–82.
Article history
Received:
October 10 1969
Citation
R. M. Benolken, S. L. Jacobson; Response Properties of a Sensory Hair Excised from Venus's Flytrap . J Gen Physiol 1 July 1970; 56 (1): 64–82. doi: https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.56.1.64
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