1.

WATER AND NUTRIENT ABSORPTION

Water Potential
• Plant biologists often discuss the forces that act on water within a plant in terms of potentials.
•The turgor pressure,which is a physical pressure that results as water enters the cell vacuoles, is referred to as
pressure potential.
•The smallest amount of pressure needed to stop osmosis is referred to as the solute (or osmotic) potential of
the solution.
•The water potential of a plant cell is, in essence, the combination of its pressure potential and solute potential; it
represents the total potential energy of the water in a plant.
•Water potential in a plant regulates movement of water.

Absorption of Water from the Soil

• From the epidermis to the endodermis of the root, there are three pathways through which water can flow:
the apoplast, the symplast and the transmembrane pathway
1. The apoplast is the continuous system of cell walls and intercellular air spaces. In this pathway water moves
without crossing any membranes as it travels across the root cortex.
2. The symplast consists of the entire network of cell cytoplasm interconnected by plasmodesmata. In this
pathway, water travels across the root cortex via the plasmodesmata.
3. The transmembrane pathway is the route by which water enters a cell on one side, exits the cell on
the other side, enters the next in the series, and so on. In this pathway, water crosses the plasma membrane
of each cell in its path twice.
•The presence of a Casparian strip on the walls of the endodermal cells regulates the movement of
water and minerals into the stele.

Translocation of Sugar
• Organic materials are translocated by the sieve tube members of the phloem. In contrast to the xylem,
where the conducting elements function when the cells are dead, the sieve tube members of the phloem are
living but highly specialized cells.
•Phloem translocation moves in the direction from source (supply area) to sink (area of metabolism or
storage).
•Translocation in the phloem is quite rapid and has been timed at speeds averaging 1 meter (3.3 feet) per
hour.
• The hypothesis currently accepted to explain translocation in the phloem is the Pressure Flow (or Mass
Flow ) Hypothesis.
• According to this hypothesis, there is a bulk flow of solutes from source to sink

Nutrient uptake
• The mineral ion concentration in the soil water is usually much lower than it is in the plant therefore, an
expenditure of energy (supplied by ATP) is required for the accumulation of such ions in root cells.
• The plasma membranes of root hair cells contain a variety of protein transport channels, through which
proton pumps transport specific ions against even large concentration gradients.
• Once in the roots, the ions, which are plant nutrients, are transported via the xylem throughout the plant.
• The ions may follow the cell walls and the spaces between them or more often go directly through the
plasma membranes and the protoplasm of adjacent cells
•Eventually, on their journey inward, they reach the endodermis and any further passage through the cell
walls is blocked by the Casparian strips.
 • Water and ions must pass through the plasma membranes and protoplasts of the endodermal cells to
reach the xylem.
• However, transport through the cells of the endodermis is selective therefore, the endodermis, with its
unique structure, along with the cortex and epidermis, controls which ions reach the xylem.

GASEOUS EXCHANGE IN PLANTS

 Plants obtain the gases they need through their leaves
 They require oxygen for respiration and carbon dioxide for photosynthesis
 The gases diffuse into the intercellular spaces of the leaf through pores, which are normally on the
underside of the leaf through the stomata via passive transport
 Stomatal opening and closing depends on changes in the turgor of the guard cells. When water flows into
the guard cells by osmosis, their turgor increases and they expand. If the guard cells loose water the
opposite happens and the pore closes
 Guard cells are kidney bean shaped. Stoma (singular) – Stomata take in potassium by active transport –
stimulated by light on the leaf
– Increases the particles in the cell therefore water enters by osmosis and GC swell opening the
stomata
(because outer wall is thinner making it bulge out)
– Allow minerals out of GC and thus H2O leaves via osmosis and the stomata closes
1. In the prescence of light pottasium ions are actively transported into the guard cells from epidermal cells by
the help of ion transport channels
2. Higher internal K+ and Cl- concentration gives guard cells a more negative water potential, causing them to
take up water and stretch, opening the stoma
3. In the absence of light, as K+ diffuses passively out of the guard cells, water follows by osmosis, the guard
cells become flaccid and the stoma closes
• Abscisic acid, a plant hormone also plays a primary role in allowing K+ to pass rapidly out of guard
cells, causing the stomata to close in response to drought.
• This hormone is released from chloroplasts and produced in leaves. It binds to specific receptor sites in
the plasma membranes of guard cells.