Plant Form and Function

1. Introduction 2. Flower structure and function 3. The plant body 4. Vegetative organs 5. How do plants acquire nutrients? 6. How do plants transport water and minerals? 7. How do plants transport sugars? 8. Concluding remarks

Reference
(Skim through for relevant info, you may use other text books)

9th Ed Chapter 21 (section 21.1) Chapter 43 (relevant sections) Chapter 44 (section 44.2)

8th Ed Chapter 21 (section 21.1) Chapter 42 (relevant sections) Chapter 43 (section 43.3)

7th Ed Chapter 21 (section 21.2) Chapter 24 (relevant sections) Chapter 25 (sections 25.2, 25.3 & 25.4)

1. Introduction
Why learn about plants?
Pharmaceuticals
Taxus brevifolia Pacific yew Taxol Ovarian cancer, breast cancer Catharanthus roseus Periwinkle Vincristine, Vinblastine Leukemia

What are plants? Plants = Members of plant kingdom (Kingdom Plantae) Main features 1. Photosynthesis chlorophyll 2. Cellulose in cell wall 3. Alternation of generations between haploid and diploid forms

Food Industrial and building materials Source of oxygen Removal of carbon dioxide. Old trees lock up much carbon in their tree trunks

Plant types

2. Flower structure and function

What are flowers?

Flowering Plants

Complete flower has 4 sets of modified leaves: Sepals Petals Stamens (filaments and anthers) Carpels (stigma, style and ovary)

Incomplete flowers lack one or more of the 4 floral parts Eg plants of the squash family (e.g. zucchinis, cucumber) flowers have separate male flowers (lack carpels) and female flowers (lack stamens) Incomplete flowers may also lack sepals or petals

Each anther contains hundreds to thousands of pollen grains . Pollen is the male gametophyte (haploid stage).

In many species, each immature pollen grain consists of a large tube cell and a smaller generative cell In more mature pollen grain: generative cell divides into 2 sperm cells

-Ovary is deep-seeded in the flower. -In the ovary are the ovules.

polar nuclei within central cell

Each ovule is surrounded by protective layers of integument (a). b Each ovule contains an embryo sac (b). Embryo sac is the egg cell female gametophyte. Each embryo sac contains 7 cells, one of them is the egg cell. The egg cell is located near the opening of the ovule (c).

How a sperm cell fertilizes an egg cell? Pollen grains land on stigma of a flower of a same species. The pollen grain absorbs water from the stigma. The tube cell elongates, the pollen tube grows along the style towards the ovules. If all goes well, pollen tube reaches the opening of the ovule and breaks into the embryo sac.

 The tip of the tube ruptures releasing the 2 sperm cells. One sperm fertilizes the egg cell, the fertilized egg cell will develop into an embryo. The other sperm fuses with two other cells in the embryo sac, this triploid (3n) cell divides repeatedly and developed into endosperm, a food storage tissue. The embryo + endosperm + seed coat (developed from integument) = the seed

3. The plant body

Seeds germinate and grow into plants The plant body is modular, it is made up of modules
Each module: Node (axillary bud, leaf) + internode

All modules are produced by the shoot apical meristems

Shoot system Internode Node Axillary bud Branch Flower Inflorescence Leaf Root system Root Main Branch

Tissue = A
group of (normally similar) cells that together carry out a specific function and of similar origin.

Basically 3 tissue systems Vascular

Xylem Phloem

Ground
Parenchyma Collenchyma Sclerenchyma

Dermal
- Epidermal tissues

Vascular tissue system

Xylem Phloem

Xylem Tissue
For transport of mainly water and mineral nutrients from roots to rest of the plant Tubes o Tracheid o Vessel element

Tracheids thin, slanting ends, stacked atop one another, pitted at ends Vessel elements larger, perforation at ends or completely open

Phloem Tissue For transport of sugars (and amino acids, hormones) in solution Phloem cell types o Sieve tube element o Companion cell (with each sievetube element, both connected, regulates sugars in and out of sieve tubes)

Ground tissue system (the inbetweens or fillers)

Ground Tissue System

All-purpose
Parenchyma (thinwalled, alive at maturity)

Support
Collenchyma (living,
elongated, thick-walled but flexible, support young growing stem)

Sclerenchyma (dead
when differentiated, hardened cell wall, permanent, fibers in some plants)

Epidermis Dermal Tissue System

Epidermis

Outermost cell layer Protects the plant body from the environment Epidermis cell types
oGround epidermal cells oGuard cells oHairs (reduce water loss) oRoot hairs (increase
absorptive surface)

Basically 3 tissue systems Vascular ( Xylem, Phloem)

+

4. Vegetative organs
Root =
-normally underground -provides anchorage -absorbs water and dissolved nutrients and transports them to the stem -produces some hormones -in some plants serves as a storage site for carbohydrates

Ground (Parenchyma, Collenchyma, Sclerenchyma)

+

Dermal (Epidermal tissues)

 Stem = -normally located

above ground -bears leaves and reproductive structures such as flowers and fruit Apical meristem

Leaf =
-An outgrowth of
a stem, normally flattened and photosynthetic. -Produced by the apical meristem, initially microscopic.

Tissues of the leaf

oUpper epidermis oMesophyll (green) -palisade -spongy oLower epidermis -stoma

5. How do plants acquire nutrients

Plant nutrients needed for plants to survive and complete their life cycle. Nutrients
o From air : carbon (from CO2), O2 o From soil: o Phosphorus o Nitrogen o Potassium o Magnesium o Calcium o Trace elements (iron, chlorine, copper, manganese, zinc, boron, molybdenum)
Copyright 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

9th Ed

Thro porous wall Cross plasma membrane (Active) Thro plasmodesmata

1. Minerals dissolved in soil water fill the porous walls between cells. The Casparian strip of endodermis blocks water and minerals from moving between cells into the vascular cylinder. 2. Minerals are actively transported across plasma membranes of the cells. 3. Minerals diffuse from cell to cell through plasmadesmata. 4. Minerals either diffuse or are actively transported across plasma membranes of endodermal and pericyle cells into extra cellular space of vascular tissues. 5. Minerals and water enter vascular cylinder.

Symbiotic relationships help plants acquire nutrients. Eg. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria

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Eg. Fungal mycorrhizae (converts rock-bound minerals into simple compounds)

6. How do plants transport water and minerals?

99% of the water absorbed by the roots is evaporated through the leaves by a process called transpiration. Hydrogen bonds among water molecules provide the cohesion that holds a long chain of water within the xylem. Transpiration from the leaves caused the concentration in the leaves to drop, created a tension and pull the water chain up.

Mechanism (cohesiontension theory) for transport of water in the stem

7. How do plants transport sugars?

Sugars are produced in the leaves through photosynthesis. Sugars are moved to other non-green parts of the plant such as roots, flowers, fruits. Sugars are moved in solution. Mechanism of sugar movement explained by pressure-flow theory.

http://www.youtube.co m/watch?v=At1BJJDc Xhk&feature=related

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 The Pressure-Flow Theory Source: Any part of the plant that synthesizes more sugar than it uses Sink: Any part that use more sugar than it produces

1. Sugar produced by source cell is actively transported into phloem sieve tube 2. Water from nearby xylem follows by osmosis, creating higher pressure in cell because of the rigid cell wall 3. Water pressure drives fluid to region of lower pressure 4. Cells of a sugar sink actively transport sugar out

8. Concluding remarks
Flowering plants are highly evolved, highly organized Developmental processes are well regulated Understand the functioning of plants enable us to utilize them eg cultivate them for food or for medicine

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