SIR JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSESir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858-1937) was an Indian biophysicist, botanist and physicist. He is a pioneer in the field of plant neurobiology, known for his ground-breaking hypothesis that “Plants also have receptors for stimuli, conductors (nerves) which electrically code and propagate the stimulus and efferent or terminal motor organs”. Bose conducted his research in the field of plant physiology post his superannuation at Presidency University, Kolkata, India, primarily working on Mimosa pudica and Desmodium gyrans. He demonstrated the electrical nature of the conduction of various stimuli like chemical and environmental cues or wounding. He invented various devices such as the torsional recorder and crescograph to measure electrical responses and heliotropic movements in plants. Bose was a front-runner in the field of plant neurobiology, coining the term "Plant nerve", and through his contributions to plant nervous systemic research, it was established that the nervous tissue in plants is located in the phloem, which conducted the afferent or the sensory and the efferent or the motor impulses. He even measured the speed of the nervous impulse within the petioles and found it to be as high as 400 mm/sec1. In addition to the action potentials generated in response to an external stimulus, he observed automatic or spontaneous rhythmic or pulsatory movements in plants akin to heart beat in animals. His observations were confirmed later by Wildon et al. (1992) who designed experiments to distinguish between a phloem-transmissible chemical signal and a physically propagated signal based on electrical activity in the phloem of tomato seedlings. In the modern era, his work was advanced further by Baluska et al. (2009) by utilizing tools and techniques of modern molecular and cellular biology, chemical ecology and genomics.
Fun fact: The biophysicist, botanist a crater on the moon named after him. Bose is a lunar impact crater that is located in the southern sphere hemisphere of the moon. Relevant articles: Bose JC. (1926). The nervous mechanisms of plants. London: Longmans, Green and Co Wildon, D., Thain, J., Minchin, P. et al. (1992). Electrical signalling and systemic proteinase inhibitor induction in the wounded plant. Nature 360, 62–65 Shepherd, V. A. (2005). From semi-conductors to the rhythms of sensitive plants: The research of J. C. Bose. Cellular and Molecular Biology. 51 (7), 607-619 Baluska, F., Mancuso, S., Volkmann, D., Barlow, P. W. (2009) The 'root-brain' hypothesis of Charles and Francis Darwin: Revival after more than 125 years. Plant Signal Behav. 4(12), 21-1127 Tandon, P. N. (2019). Jagadish Chandra Bose and plant neurobiology. Indian J Med Res. 149 (5) Jigeesha Mukhopadhyay PhD student #BlackBotanistsWeek #BlackBotanical Legacy #BlackRoots #Botany101
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October 2023
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