SBI 3U

Pressure Flow Theory (Movement of Sugars in Phloem Tissue)

Figure 1: Pressure Flow Theory in Phloem

• A high concentration of sugar inside the leaf creates a diffusion gradient and
draws water into the cells.
• Movement occurs by bulk flow; phloem sap moves from sugar sources (any part of the
plant that is producing or releasing sugar) to sugar sinks by means of turgor pressure
(pressure of cell contents against cell wall, determined by the amount of water in the
vacuole).
• During the plant's growth period, usually during the spring, storage organs such as
the roots are sugar sources, and the plant's many growing areas are sugar sinks.
After the growth period the leaves are the sources and storage organs are the
sinks.
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After the growth period, when the meristems are dormant, the leaves are sources, and
storage organs are sinks. Developing seed-bearing organs (such as fruit) are always sinks.
Because of this multi-directional flow, coupled with the fact that sap cannot move with
ease between adjacent sieve-tubes, it is not unusual for sap in adjacent sieve-tubes to be
flowing in opposite directions.

While movement of water and minerals through the xylem is driven by negative
pressures (tension) most of the time, movement through the phloem is driven by positive
hydrostatic pressures. This process is termed translocation, and is accomplished by a
process called phloem loading and unloading. Cells in a sugar source "load" a sieve-tube
element by actively transporting solute molecules into it. This causes water to move into
the sieve-tube element by osmosis, creating pressure that pushes the sap down the tube.
In sugar sinks, cells actively transport solutes out of the sieve-tube elements, producing
the exactly opposite effect.
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