Pharmaceutical Botany w/ Taxonomy

LEC | 13 TRANSPORT PROCESSES

TRANSPORT PROCESSES
- Diffusion and active transport
- Osmosis and imbibition
- Long distance transport: Phloem
- Long distance transport: Xylem
▪ Mechanism of xylem transport
- Tension-cohesion model
▪ Mechanism of phloem transport
- Pressure-flow hypothesis

PASSIVE AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT XYLEM CELLS

Passive Transport ▪ Vessel elements
- Does NOT require ATP to occur - wide, thin walled, hollow cells; dead at
- Diffusion maturity, for transport & support
- Osmosis
▪ Tracheids
Active Transport - narrower, tapered cells; have pits at ends that
- Requires ATP to occur allow water transport
- Bulk transport
XYLEM TRANSPORT
PASSIVE TRANSPORT Tension-cohesion model
▪ Diffusion ▪ Transpiration
- movement of molecules from a region of higher - loss of water vapor from a plant’s aerial parts
concentration to a region of lower
concentration ▪ Cohesion
- the tendency of like
▪ Osmosis molecules to adhere
- diffusion of water through a semi-permeable or stick together
membrane from a region where water is more
concentrated to a region where it is less ▪ Adhesion
concentrated - the tendency of
- Osmosis is primary way water enters plants unlike molecules to
from environment adhere to one
another
OSMOSIS AND PLASMOLYSIS
Plasmolysis TENSION-COHESION MODEL
- Loss of water through osmosis 1. Water is pulled up the plant due to tension
- Accompanied by shrinkage of protoplasm away produced at the top of the plant by evaporative pull
from the cell wall of transpiration.

Imbibition 2. The tension draws water up the stem xylem to leaf

- First step in seed germination
- Cells imbibe water by osmosis
- Absorption of water by a dry seed that precedes
germination
TRANSPORT WITHIN PLANTS
Imbibition
- Water and minerals absorbed by roots are
drawn upward in the xylem to the shoots
- Sugar produced by photosynthesis is exported
from leaves to other organs via the phloem
TRANSPORT IN THE PLANT BODY
▪ Long distance transport
- Water and solutes move through xylem and
phloem by bulk flow, the movement of a fluid
driven by pressure
cells that have lost water as a result of transpiration
and pulls water from root xylem into stem xylem
3. As water is pulled upward, soil water is drawn into
the roots
4. This upward pulling of water is possible only as long
as there is unbroken column of water in the xylem
throughout the plant.
UNBROKEN COLUMN OF WATER
- cohesion among water molecules, which are
strongly attracted to one another by hydrogen
bonding
- adhesion of water to the walls of xylem cells
 LEC | 13 TRANSPORT PROCESSES
ROOTS SELECTIVELY ABSORB NUTRIENTS
- Minerals as ions dissolved in soil water
- Concentration of mineral ions in xylem sap
different from those in soil water
- Dissolved mineral ions pass through plasma
membrane by active transport
ACTIVE TRANSPORT OF DISSOLVED MINERAL IONS
- The energy-requiring movement of a substance
- Movement across a membrane from a region of
lower concentration to a region of higher
concentration
- Dissolved mineral ions pass through plasma
membrane by active transport
- Requires expenditure of energy
PHLOEM CELLS
▪ Sieve-tube elements
- alive at maturity; long
narrow with sieve plates
at ends
▪ Companion cell
- attached to side of sieve-
tube element
TRANSLOCATION IN PHLOEM CELLS
▪ Movement of fluid within phloem tissues
- both upward and downward
▪ Phloem carries phloem sap or food from a sugar
source to a sugar sink
o Sugar source
- an organ where sugar is being produced
- usually leaves
o Sugar sink
- an organ of storage (as starch)
- usually roots, growing stems, buds, fruits
THE PRESSURE-FLOW
- Explains translocation in phloem
- Movement of dissolved sugar due to pressure
gradient between the source and sink
THE PRESSURE-FLOW THRU ACTIVE TRANSPORT
1. At the source
- dissolved sucrose moves from a leaf’s
mesophyll cells into the companion cells
- companion cells load it into sieve tube elements
of phloem by AT
2. Result:
- increase dissolved sugars in the sieve tube
elements
- water moves by osmosis from xylem cells into
sieve tubes
- increasing turgor pressure inside them
3. At the sink:
- sugar is unloaded from the sieve-tube elements
- water moves out of the sieve tubes by osmosis
and into surrounding cells
4. Most of this water diffuses back to the xylem
- water movement decreases the turgor pressure
inside the sieve tubes at the sink