Scrutinizing the Impact of Alternating Electromagnetic Fields on Molecular Features of the Model Plant Arabidopsis thaliana

Sonja Michèle Schmidtpott, Saliba Danho, Vijay Kumar, Thorsten Seidel, Wolfgang Schöllhorn and Karl-Josef Dietz
Additional contact information
Sonja Michèle Schmidtpott: Department of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
Saliba Danho: Department of Training and Movement Science, Mainz University, 55122 Mainz, Germany
Vijay Kumar: Department of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
Thorsten Seidel: Department of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
Wolfgang Schöllhorn: Department of Training and Movement Science, Mainz University, 55122 Mainz, Germany
Karl-Josef Dietz: Department of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: Natural and anthropogenic electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are ubiquitous in the environment and interfere with all biological organisms including plants. Particularly the quality and quantity of alternating EMFs from anthropogenic sources are increasing due to the implementation of novel technologies. There is a significant interest in exploring the impact of EMFs (similar to those emitted from battery chargers of electric cars) on plants. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana was exposed to a composite alternating EMF program for 48 h and scrutinized for molecular alterations using photosynthetic performance, metabolite profiling, and RNA sequencing followed by qRT-PCR validation. Clear differences in the photosynthetic parameters between the treated and control plants indicated either lower nonphotochemical quenching or higher reduction of the plastoquinone pool or both. Transcriptome analysis by RNA sequencing revealed alterations in transcript amounts upon EMF exposure; however, the gene ontology groups of, e.g., chloroplast stroma, thylakoids, and envelope were underrepresented. Quantitative real-time PCR validated deregulation of some selected transcripts. More profound were the readjustments in metabolite pool sizes with variations in photosynthetic and central energy metabolism. These findings together with the invariable phenotype indicate efficient adjustment of the physiological state of the EMF-treated plants, suggesting testing for more challenging growth conditions in future experiments.

Keywords: abiotic stress acclimation; Arabidopsis thaliana; electromagnetic fields; metabolites; photosynthesis; transcriptome (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5144/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5144/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5144-:d:800549

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().