Orientation ofFucus egg polarity by electric a. c. and d. c. fields

Zygotes of the marine brown alga,Fucus serratus, have been subjected to the different modes of electric fields. 1) The result of a former study with conductive d.c. fields has been confirmed using electrostatic d.c. fields of 0.5 to 4 V/cm: the zygotes develop the cell polarity axis parallel to the imposed field with the rhizoid pole toward the cathode. 2) The frequency response to both, conductive and electrostatic, a.c. fields represents an optimum curve. The response,i.e. rhizoid formation at either or, in rare cases, both cell poles, peaks at square pulse durations,tE, of 70 to 120 ms. 3) The same frequency response appears if the pulse number is kept constant at 8s−1 by variation of the interval between the pulses,to. Only fortoo > 200 ms,i.e. a pulse number of 3s−1 the response declines markedly. The data support our hypothesis that imposed electric fields induce cell polarityvia differential shift of the membrane potential rather than transcellular current flow. Furthermore, the given dose-response curves strikingly resemble those due to the other morphogenetically active signals: percent response consistently approximates the per cent signal intensity gradient which evokes it.