TRANSPORT IN PLANTS

Flowering plants
(Angiosperms) have
2 transport systems

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/courses/HORT301/MikesLectures/TranslPhloem.html

Xylem

 Made of dead cells

(xylem vessels)
 Uses physical
mechanisms to transport
the fluid (the transpiration
flow)
 Transports water and
mineral salts only
 From the root to the
leaves

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

www.skidmore.edu/academics/biology/plant_bio/...
Phloem

 Made of living cells (sieve

tubes and their companion
cells)
 Uses active transport to
load the phloem and unload
the phloem
 Transports water, minerals
and organic molecules
 From shoot to roots and
roots to shoot

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

www.skidmore.edu/academics/biology/plant_bio/...
Transport in the xylem

www.richmond.edu/.../KMO_stem_2nd_xylem_20Xs.JPG

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

universe-review.ca/I10-22a-xylem.jpg
Movement of minerals to the root

 Diffusion
 Along fungal hyphae (mutualism)
 In mass flow of soil water

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

Root uptake
 Roots provide a large
surface area for
absorption
 They are long, thin and
highly branched
 Near the tip the is a
zone of root hairs
 The soil solution can www.epa.state.il.us/.../images/root-system.gif

penetrate into the root

up to the endodermis
via the free space =
the apoplasm

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

Root uptake

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

sps.k12.ar.us/massengale/images/modroothairs.jpg
Root uptake

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/X/Xylem.html
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
Root uptake

 At any point across the root the minerals

can be taken up by a cell across a plasma
membrane
 This uses active transport
 Therefore movement into the root cell
cytoplasm is selective
 Once a mineral is in the cytoplasm of a cell
it can move from cell to cell via the
plasmodesmata = the symplasm

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

Root uptake
 Minerals cannot travel
in the apoplasm past
the endodermis
 The cell walls of the
endodermis are water
proofed by a
Casparian strip
 At the endodermis the
plant can have control universe-review.ca/I10-22a-strip.jpg

over what it absorbs

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
Xylem vessels

 Xylem is found in a vascular bundle in the middle of

the root
 As they mature their wall becomes impregnated with
lignin
 The tissue becomes wood
 This provides support to the plant
 When they are mature they lose the top and
bottom ends
 The xylem forms continuous columns of water up
the plant to the leaves

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

The cohesion-tension theory

 The upward flow of sap is created by the

evaporation of water from the surface of the leaves
(evapo-transpiration)
 Most of the water evaporates through pores called
stomata (sing. stoma) = transpiration
 The water is pulled up as the water evaporates from
the leaves = tension
 BUT usually a column of water cannot be pumped
up more than 10m without breaking
 Some trees can grow to 100m (e.g. sequoia and
eucalyptus)

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

The cohesion-tension theory

 However when water travels

in thin tubes (like xylem
vessels) there is a strong
cohesion between the water
molecules
 A column of water in a xylem
vessel has the same tensile
strength as a thread of steel
of the same diameter
 The limit of this is reached at
about 100m

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

lettres-histoire.ac-rouen.fr/histgeo/sequoia_...
Stomata

www.isv.cnrs-gif.fr/jg/images/stomata.jpg
ABA = Abscissic acid

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

Stomata
 Stomata can open and close
 Controlled by abscisic acid (ABA) hormone
 Guard cells are found each side of the pore
 When the guard cells are turgid the pore opens
 When the guard cells are flaccid the pore closes
 When the plant looses more water than it can
absorb its cells become flaccid
 So a dehydrated plant closes its stomata
 When the stomata close the plant economises on
water

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

Factors affecting the transpiration flow

Anything that affects evaporation will affect

transpiration
 Humidity

 Temperature

 Wind speed

 But also light

When there is light the plant photosynthesizes

When it is photosynthesizing it needs CO2
So when it is light it opens the stomata to absorb CO2
and it lets out more water

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

Factors affecting the transpiration flow

biology.unlv.edu/.../Leaves/FicusStomata2.jpg
Stomata of fig (Ficus)

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 Translocation in the phloem

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/courses/HORT301/MikesLectures/TranslPhloem.html
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
Sieve tubes
 Sieve tubes = long thin
cells joined end to end
 Each end has
perforated sieve plate
 They do not grow thick
lignified cell walls
 They keep their
cytoplasm but they lose
their nucleus
 They are living cells
 Difficult to experiment
with.
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
www.uic.edu/.../bios100/lectf03am/phloem.jpg
Using aphids to trace phloem flow

 Aphids are bugs

(hemiptera)
 Their mouth parts
are specialised for
piercing plants and
sucking sap from the
phloem (stylet).

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS © P Billiet

Aphid stylets
 The phloem sap is Stylet (stained red) of the aphid
under pressure Sitobion yakini terminating in a
single sieve tube
 So the sap flows out
even when the aphid
is removed
 The stylet pierces a
single phloem sieve
tube
 Transport in a single
sieve can be traced.
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
Using radioisotopes
 Leaves 4, 6 and 8 labelled with a 5 min pulse of
14CO in three plants, then left for 1 hour
2
 The radioisotope is traced to other leaves by
autoradiography.

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 Tracing to other parts of the plant

 Leaf 8 labelled using

a 5 min pulse of 14CO2
 Left for 1 hour
 Autoradiograph taken
for 13 days.

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

Pressure flow hypothesis

 Movement in the phloem is still not completely

understood
 Movement seems to work on the principle of source
to sink
 Organic molecules (e.g. sugars) are loaded into the
sieve tubes where they are produced (e.g.
photosynthesising leaves) = the source
 This requires active transport
 This is followed by osmosis, water follows the sugar
into the cell
 The pressure rises and the liquid flows away
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
Pressure flow hypothesis
 The sugars are removed from the sieve tubes where
they are used (e.g. respiring root cells) = the sink
 The water follows the sugars out of the sieve tube by
osmosis
 The pressure is lower in the sink than in the source
so the sap flows from source to sink
 In summer the photosynthesising leaves are the source
and root storage organs are sinks
 BUT after the winter in spring, the roots are sources
providing nutrients for the growing shoots
 So phloem transport is in two directions and it may
depend on the season
© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS
 Pressure flow hypothesis

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/courses/HORT301/MikesLectures/TranslPhloem.html © 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS

 THE END!

© 2016 Paul Billiet ODWS