Physical Non-Contact Communication between Microscopic Aquatic Species: Novel Experimental Evidences for an Interspecies Information Exchange

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Abstract

Previous experiments on physical non-contact communication within same species gave rise to test for this type of communication also across the species border, which was the aim of the present study. It was found that autotrophic unicellular organisms ( Euglena viridis), separated by cuvettes, affected the proliferation rate of heterotrophic unicellular organisms ( Paramecium caudatum). Further, the heterotrophic unicellular organism affected also the proliferation rate of a multicellular heterotrophic organism ( Rotatoria sp.) and vice versa. In the case when populations (of Euglena viridis and Paramecium caudatum) were shielded against electromagnetic fields in the optical spectrum from each other, no effects were measured. The results may support the notion that the organisation of ecosystems relies also on the exchange of electromagnetic fields from their constituting biosystems.

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Most cited references 14

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Electromagnetic cellular interactions.

Ashkan Farhadi, Jeremy Fields, Michal Cifra (2011)

Chemical and electrical interaction within and between cells is well established. Just the opposite is true about cellular interactions via other physical fields. The most probable candidate for an other form of cellular interaction is the electromagnetic field. We review theories and experiments on how cells can generate and detect electromagnetic fields generally, and if the cell-generated electromagnetic field can mediate cellular interactions. We do not limit here ourselves to specialized electro-excitable cells. Rather we describe physical processes that are of a more general nature and probably present in almost every type of living cell. The spectral range included is broad; from kHz to the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. We show that there is a rather large number of theories on how cells can generate and detect electromagnetic fields and discuss experimental evidence on electromagnetic cellular interactions in the modern scientific literature. Although small, it is continuously accumulating. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Rudimentary form of cellular "vision".

Darya G. Buehler (1992)

BHK cells were inoculated sparsely on one face ("sparse- or s-face") of a thin glass film whose opposite face was covered with a 2- to 3-day-old confluent layer of BHK cells ("confluent- or c-face"). After 7 hr of attaching and spreading in the absence of visible light, most of the cells on the s-face traversed with their long axes the direction of the whorls of the confluent cells on the c-face directly opposed. The effect was inhibited by a thin metal coating of the glass films. The results suggest that the cells were able to detect the orientation of others by signals that penetrated glass but not thin metallic films and, therefore, appeared to be carried by electromagnetic radiation. In contrast, the effect was not influenced by a thin coat of silicone on the glass, suggesting that the wavelength of this radiation is likely to be in the red to infrared range. The ability of cells to detect the direction of others by electromagnetic signals points to a rudimentary form of cellular "vision."

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Biophys

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Biophys

Journal ID (publisher-id): JBP

Title: Journal of Biophysics

Publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation

ISSN (Print): 1687-8000

ISSN (Electronic): 1687-8019

Publication date (Print): 2016

Publication date (Electronic): 2 March 2016

Volume: 2016

Electronic Location Identifier: 7406356

Affiliations

University of Basel, Botanical Institute, Hebelstrasse 1, 4056 Basel, Switzerland

Author notes

*Daniel Fels: daniel.fels@ 123456unibas.ch

Academic Editor: Jianwei Shuai

Author information

Daniel Fels http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9253-9991

Article

DOI: 10.1155/2016/7406356

PMC ID: 4793142

PubMed ID: 27042178

SO-VID: cb389138-001c-4e7f-955e-8298c640b0db

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

History

Date received : 27 October 2015

Date revision received : 31 January 2016

Date accepted : 11 February 2016

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