Translocation

Movement of organic food through a flowering plant

Objectives
● Identify the structural features of a phloem tube
● Describe the pressure flow hypothesis in terms of translocation
The Phloem vessel
● Phloem vessels are also known as phloem sieve tubes
● They transport organic food, mainly sucrose and some amino acids
● The tubes are made up of columns of long narrow elongated cell
● Each cell is separated by small holes called sieve plates
● Each cell contains living cytoplasm but no nucleus. The cytoplasm runs
through the holes of the sieve plates.Each sieve tube element has a
companion cell next to it that contains a nucleus. The nucleus controls the
functioning of the both cells.
The Pressure flow hypothesis
Sugars flow from a sugar source to a sugar sink.
While this happens a pressure gradient is created in the phloem
This causes the tubes to move up and down the plant
Terms to memorize
Sugar Source: Parts of the plant that produces sugars and releases sugars (storage parts
of plants)

Sugar sink: Parts of plants that requires sugars for energy (respiration) and storage

E.g.Cells in stem roots, fruits storage organs and growing parts

Evaluation
Define Translocation