Synchronized Chromatin Reorganization as a Key Biomarker in Anesthetic Effects on Plants

Anesthesia produces a reversible loss of responsiveness in animals by suppressing neuronal excitability and large-scale network integration, yet its effects on non-neuronal systems remain poorly defined. Plants lack neurons but possess excitable membranes, electrical signaling, and stress-responsive chromatin, making them an ideal model to study anesthetic action independent of neural circuitry. Using confocal and super-resolution microscopic imaging in Solanum lycopersicum and Solanum melongena roots and stems, we show that anesthesia disrupts multiple organelles like mitochondria, vesicle trafficking, microtubules, and chloroplast–nucleus association, mirroring many cellular effects described in neuronal tissues. These disruptions intensify under ATP inhibition (AI), indicating energetic vulnerability rather than neuron-specific mechanisms. In contrast, the nucleus remains structurally intact yet undergoes a striking, synchronized, non-local reorganization across cells. Euchromatin relocates to the nuclear periphery, while heterochromatin remains stable, revealing a targeted, ATP-independent chromatin reorganization unique to anesthesia. Our findings identify that nuclear-chromatin reorganization may conserve as a biomarker of the anesthetized state across neuronal and non-neuronal systems.