★ Unit 6: Plant Nutrition.

Photosynthesis
➔ Is the process in which plants manufacture carbohydrates from raw materials using
energy from light
➔ All living organisms need food as a source of raw materials to build new cells and
tissues as they grow, they also need it as a source of energy.
➔ the most likely source of their raw materials would appear to be in the soil.
➔ Chlorophyll absorbs sunlight and makes the energy from sunlight available for
chemical reactions
➔ The function of chlorophyll is to convert light energy into chemical energy.
➔ Chemical equation of photosynthesis is:

Light energy
Carbon dioxide + water —--------------------> Glucose + oxygen
Chlorophyll

Sunlight
6CO2 + 6H2O —-----------------------> C6H12O6 + 6O2
Chlorophyll

Leaf Structure:

➔ Midrib: Is a network of veins that deliver water and salts to the leaf cells and carry
away the food made by them, also the network of the veins forms a kind of skeleton
that supports the softer tissues of the leaf blade. It's the main vein of the leaf.
➔ Epidermis: Is a single layer of cells on the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf. It
has a thin waxy layer called the cuticle over the epidermis.
● Cuticle: Is made of wax, waterproofing the leaf, it avoids excessive water
loss from the plant and avoids excessive transpiration.
● Upper epidermis: It doesn’t have chlorophyll and no chloroplasts present.
Are cells thin and transparent to allow light pass through. They act as a
barrier to disease organisms.

➔ Stomata: Each stoma is surrounded by a pair of guard cells. These control whether
the stoma is open or closed, water vapor passes out during transpiration. Carbon
dioxide diffuses in and oxygen diffuses out during photosynthesis. The stomata occur
only in lower epidermis
● Lower epidermis: Acts as a protective layer. Stomata are present to regulate
the loss of water vapor (called transpiration). It is the site where gaseous
exchange into and out of the leaf.

➔ Mesophyll: It's the tissue between the upper and lower epidermis. And it consists of
two zones. The upper palisade mesophyll and the lower spongy mesophyll:
 ● Palisade mesophyll: Is the main region for photosynthesis. Cells are quite
long and packed with chloroplasts, to trap light energy. They receive carbon
dioxide by diffusion from air spaces in the spongy mesophyll.
● Spongy mesophyll: (Because of the shape) These cells are more spherical
(esfericas). They contain chloroplast but not as many as the palisade
mesophyll. Because of the shape the air spaces between the cells allow
gaseous exchange.
➔ Chloroplasts: Are green organelles, due to the presence of the pigment chlorophyll,
they are found in the cytoplasm of the photosynthesising cells.

➔ Veins (vascular bundles): They consist of two different types of tissues Xylem and
Phloem (Together with the phloem and the xylem form a vascular bundle).
● Xylem: The xylem vessels are long thin tubes with no cell contents when
mature, They have thickened cell walls, impregnated with a material called
lignin. It carries water and salts to the cells in the leaf.
● Phloem: The phloem is in the form of sieve tubes. The ends of each
elongated cell are perforated to form sieve plates and the cells retain their
contents. Phloem transports food substances such as sugars away from the
leaf to other parts of the plant.

➔ Mineral requirements:
➔ Nitrate ions: Plants need a source of nitrate ions to make amino acids. Amino acids
are important because they are joined together to make proteins, as it's needed to
make enzymes and cytoplasm of the cell. The nitrate ions are absorbed from the soil
by the roots.
➔ Magnesium ions: are needed to form chlorophyll, the photosynthetic pigment in
chloroplasts. This metallic element is also obtained in salts from the soil.
➔ Amino acids need: Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.