Mandi/Shimla, Jun 29 (PTI): In a major breakthrough in plant research, scientists at IIT Mandi said they have discovered the cellular signature of the anaesthetised state in plants, a finding forcing scientists to “rethink the anaesthetised state of consciousness”.
A cellular signature is a unique identifying pattern of biomolecules such as genes, proteins, cellular behaviours or glycans (complex carbohydrate structures composed of simple sugar molecules linked into linear or highly branched chains).
In two recent seminal articles published in journals ‘Advanced Biology’ and ‘Chemical and Biomedical Imaging’, the scientists reported that the plant cellular world responds to anaesthesia in a remarkably synchronised manner and follows a hierarchical cascade mechanism for the precise and sequential shutdown of intracellular components under anaesthetic stress.
This happens even though plants do not possess a brain or nervous system, they said.
“These findings are forcing scientists to fundamentally rethink the anaesthetised state of consciousness and compelling them to consider whether the green world around us is far more sentient than previously imagined,” a statement issued here said.
IIT Mandi Director Laxmidhar Behera and Professor Chayan Kanti Nandi, who led the team of scientists, said they see a profound resonance between the findings and ancient Indian philosophical thought.
They said the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) view of the non-local nature of consciousness is reflected in the simultaneous reorganisation of nuclei and the circumambulation of the nuclear periphery by euchromatin.
According to them, IKS has long held that consciousness, or Chetana in Sanskrit, is not a product of the brain alone but a fundamental and non-local property of all living matter, from gross matter to subtle life force and awareness.
The Vedic tradition also describes consciousness as pervading every level of existence, they said, adding that “the plants were always there but we just did not know that they could feel us looking.” Using state-of-the-art live-cell microscopy techniques, the scientists examined the impact of anaesthesia on the cells of tomato and brinjal plants.
“What the microscope is now revealing at the level of the cell nucleus maps strikingly onto what Indian philosophical thought has long maintained about the pervasive, non-local nature of consciousness,” the statement said.
The most astonishing discovery was made in a second consecutive experiment, which the researchers described as a “strikingly non-local” phenomenon.
“Although this happened in all the cells at the same time, even though those cells have no neurons connecting them and no known rapid communication pathway between them, every nucleus reorganised itself identically and simultaneously,” they said.
Inside each plant cell sits a nucleus containing DNA packaged in two forms — euchromatin (genetically active, loosely packed DNA) and heterochromatin (genetically inactive, tightly packed DNA).
The researchers found that under normal conditions, the nuclei are randomly oriented and move across plant cells, but under anaesthesia, they become highly organised and respond in a coordinated manner.
The discovery points to a highly synchronised nucleus-to-nucleus communication mechanism in cellular responses that operates even in organisms without brains or nervous systems. The scientists proposed that nuclear-chromatin reorganisation could be conserved as a biomarker of the anaesthetised state across neuronal and non-neuronal systems.
Building on these findings, the research group has extended its investigation to other biological systems to examine whether similar patterns of nuclear reorganisation occur in different species. If the same euchromatin response is observed, the evidence for a universal, non-local cellular signature of consciousness would be considerably stronger, they said. PTI BPL PRK
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