Electromagnetic Communication Between Cells - Signals Pass Through Glass

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 02 Apr 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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A new study by researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute (Basel) and CNRS (Paris, France) has found that populations of the single-celled ciliate Paramecium caudatum can influence each other using signals that pass through glass, affecting fundamental aspects of cellular life such as growth and energy uptake.

The study, which is published by the online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, is significant because chemical signals cannot transmit through a glass barrier, but electromagnetic signals can. Hence, the single-celled organisms studied here can use a communication system that is based on radiation. Even though the idea of organisms signaling via radiation was discussed between the two world wars, research into molecule based-communication has advanced much further. Accumulating studies, however, support the idea that both these communication systems co-exist and interact.

The study on Paramecium shows (indirectly) that cells use at least two frequencies when influencing each other: one in the UV and one in the visible (or longer waves) range. The cells increase or decrease growth and energy uptake in response to changing cell numbers within a population, despite being separated by an impervious material (normal or quartz glass, which allow the passage of different wavelengths of radiation) from a neighboring population. The results of the random or random-blind experiments (preformed in light-proof black boxes) present a different view from previous studies reporting on direction or growth enhancement only.

Although reactions to radiation and ultra-weak light emission (biophotons) of organisms are known, endogenous electromagnetic communication is still scarcely described. Technically, we are not yet able to observe the sending and receiving structures of the cell because of their ultra-small dimensions. However, we can define the cell as the sending and receiving unit. New experiments will ask more about the function of the communication and in particular will look for electromagnetic regulation of population growth.

"Cellular Communication through Light."
Fels D (2009)
PLoS ONE 4(4): e5086. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005086

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