Box 1.

Components and bioelectric field-like nature of Senome with implications for multicellularity and social cognition.

It is well understood that every atom generates its own electromagnetic field (EMF). For example, Magnetic Resonance Imaging is dependent on that phenomenon. Every living organism is dependent on this electrical circumstance and the resultant electrostatic attractional forces that enable the atomic bonding that generates every type of matter. In biological membranes, especially the plasma membrane, ion channel and transport activities generate bioelectric fields [116,117] which also summate to generate cell, tissue and organ-specific fields. These act as coherent resonances that assist in the integration and organization of multicellular organisms such as plants, fungi, animals and humans. For example, self-generated bioelectic fields were reported around apices of tip-growing pollen tubes, root hairs as well as whole roots [118–125]. Similarly, cells of all organisms are known to generate bioelectric fields and also to sensitively respond to such bioelectric fields [126–130]. Especially prominent bioelectric fields are generated by neurons, generating feedback loops that synchronize whole neural networks [131–135]. Such strong bioelecric fields extend around brains and can be routinely reorder as local field potentials (LFPs) that can be measured on electroencephalograms (EEGs) [126,136,137]. All such electrodynamic fields, even biophotonic ones, function as trans-membrane potentials that are crucial for sperm activation, embryonic development, cell migration, stem cell differentiation, cell regeneration and gene expression in all complex multicellular organisms[138]. Beyond internal cellular dynamics and cell-cell communication, many fields, such as EMFs, can be crucial external sources of cell stimulation at the macro-organic level. Migrating birds, hunting eels and sharks or flowers attracting their insect pollinators: all use their own electric fields [139–146]. Behavioral and cognitive effects in humans have been documented too. Electric stimulations are used for the treatment of depression, bipolar mood disorders and mood elevation [147,148]. For the molecular composition of signal transduction and information-processing networks of the Senome, see references 56, 63, 116, 117, 126–137.