Electrical Dynamics in Living Scenedesmus Acutus

In this paper, we analyzed the spontaneous and stimulated electrical activity of Scenedesmus acutus algae, a green, non-motile, unicellular, freshwater photosynthetic microalga, belonging to the order of Sphaeropleales. The results, obtained by using computational techniques such as Fast Fourier Transform, Periodogram, Spectrogram, and LSTM-based Autoencoders, demonstrate a spontaneous electrical activity, highlighting some low frequencies whose spectral power is augmented in presence of a proper electrical stimulus applied to the solution containing the algae. The same frequency patterns are not evident or only minimal when considering the medium alone. These preliminary outcomes demonstrate the chance of using S. acutus as a possible building block for future bioelectronic computing systems.