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8.1 Transport system in mammals

8.2 Transport system in vascular
plants

8.2 Transport system in vascular plants

• Explain the uptake of water and mineral ions

from soil by the root hairs involving water
potential
• Describe apoplast, symplast and vacuolar
pathway of water movement through the root
tissues.
• Describe the root pressure, cohesion-tension
theory and transpiration pull in relation to water
movement from the roots to leaves.

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• Explain translocation using the mass flow,

electro-osmosis, cytoplasmic streaming and
peristaltic waves hypothesis
• Explain the concept of source and sink. And
phloem loading and unloading in translocation
according to pressure flow hypothesis.

8.2 TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN

VASCULAR PLANTS
• Transported materials:
1. Water
2. inorganic nutrients (mineral salts)
3. poisons (herbicides, fungicides,
pesticides)
4. Hormones
5. Carbohydrates (sugar)

• 1 – 4 are absorbed by the roots and

transported to other parts of the plants;
upward movement

• 5 (sugar) is moved from the leaves to other

parts of the plants to serve the purpose of
respiration, growth and storage

• Transport in plants is also known as

translocation

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XYLEM
• Water and mineral salts from soil enter the plant through the epidermis of roots, cross the root
cortex, pass into the stele, and then flow up xylem vessels to the shoot system

• Three pathways of water movement in plants:

1. Apoplast pathway (cell walls)
2. Symplast pathway (cytoplasm and plasmodesmata)
3. Vacuolar pathway from vacoule to vacoule

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APOPLAST (APOPLASM) PATHWAY

• Is the system of adjacent cell walls which is continuous throughout the plant

• The cellulose cell wall can be occupied by water

• Water moves from one cell wall (of a cell) to the spaces between the cells, and to another cell
wall; forming a continuous stream

• In roots, the stream of water stops when it reaches a suberised matrix, the Casparian strips, of the
endodermis

• Therefore, to enter the stele, apoplastic water must enter the symplasm of the endodermal cells.

• From here it can pass by plasmodesmata into the cells of the stele.

• Once inside the stele, water is again free to move between cells as well as through them.

• In young roots, water enters directly into the xylem vessels and/or tracheids.

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SYMPLAST (SYMPLASM) PATHWAY

• Is the system of interconnected protoplasts in the plant

• The cytoplasm of neighbouring protoplasts is linked by the plasmodesmata

– Forming cytoplasmic strands which extend through pores in adjacent cell walls

• Water moves down the water potential gradient

• It won’t be stopped by the Casparian strips of the endodermis

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THE PATHWAY OF MINERALS

• Minerals enter the root by active transport into the symplast of epidermal cells and move toward
and into the stele through the plasmodesmata connecting the cells.

• They return to the apoplast from the cells of the pericycle (as well as of parenchyma cells
surrounding the xylem) through specialized transmembrane channels.

• Once in the xylem, water with the minerals that have been deposited in it (as well as occasional
organic molecules supplied by the root tissue) move up in the vessels and tracheids.

• At any level, the water can leave the xylem and pass laterally to supply the needs of other tissues.
•
• At the leaves, the xylem passes into the petiole and then into the veins of the leaf.

• Water leaves the finest veins and enters the cells of the spongy and palisade layers.

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WATER MOVEMENT VIA XYLEM…HOW?

• Xylem sap flows upward to veins that branch throughout each leaf, providing each with water.

• The flow of water transported up from the xylem replaces the water lost in transpiration and also
carries minerals to the shoot system

• Xylem sap rises against gravity, without the help of any mechanical pump, to reach heights of
more than 100 m in the tallest trees

• The two mechanisms that drive the ascent of xylem sap are:
1. Transpiration pull, and
2. Root pressure

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Transpiration Pull

• The mechanism of transpiration depends on the generation of negative pressure (tension) in the
leaf due to unique physical properties of water
– Cohesive forces (between the water molecules)
– Adhesive forces (between water molecules and the xylem wall)

• Transpiration provides the pull, and the cohesion of water due to hydrogen bonding transmits the
upward pull along the entire length of the xylem to the roots

• As water transpires from the leaf, water coating the mesophyll cells replaces water lost from the air
spaces.

• The remaining film of liquid water retreats into the pores of the cell walls, attracted by adhesion to
the hydrophilic walls.

• Cohesive forces in the water resist an increase in the surface area of the film.

• Adhesion to the wall and surface tension causes the surface of the water film to form a meniscus,
“pulling on” the water by adhesive and cohesive forces.

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…Transpiration Pull

• The water film at the surface of leaf cells has a negative pressure, a pressure less than
atmospheric pressure.

• The more concave the meniscus, the more negative the pressure of the water film.

• This tension is the pulling force that draws water out of the leaf xylem, through the mesophyll, and
toward the cells and surface film bordering the air spaces.

• The tension generated by adhesion and surface tension lowers the water potential, drawing water
from where its potential is higher to where it is lower.

– Mesophyll cells will loose water to the surface film lining the air spaces, which in turn looses
water by transpiration
– The water lost via the stomata is replaced by water pulled out of the leaf xylem.

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…Transpiration Pull

• The transpirational pull puts the xylem under tension and is transmitted all the way from the leaves
to the root tips and even into the soil solution.

– Cohesion of water due to hydrogen bonding makes it possible to pull a column of sap from
above without the water separating.

– Helping to fight gravity is the strong adhesion of water molecules to the hydrophilic walls of
the xylem cells.

– The very small diameter of the tracheids and vessel elements exposes a large proportion of
the water to the hydrophilic walls.

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Root Pressure

• At night, when transpiration is very low or zero, the root cells are still expending energy to pump
mineral ions into the xylem.

• The minerals are prevented from flowing back from the stele by the Casparian strips of the
endodermis

• The accumulation of minerals in the stele lowers water potential there, generating a positive
pressure, called root pressure, that forces fluid up the xylem.

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PHLOEM
• In vascular plants, the phloem transports the organic products of photosynthesis throughout the
plant via a process called translocation.

• The movement of the organic solutes is bidirectional/variable

• Phloem sap is an aqueous solution in which sugar, primarily the disaccharide sucrose in most
plants, is the most prevalent solute.
– It may also contain minerals, amino acids, and hormones.

• In general, sieve tubes carry food from a sugar source to a sugar sink.
– A sugar source is a plant organ (especially mature leaves) in which sugar is being produced
by either photosynthesis or the breakdown of starch.
– A sugar sink is an organ (such as growing roots, shoots, or fruit) that is a net consumer or
storer of sugar

• Other solutes, such as minerals, are also transported to sinks along with sugar.

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MÜNCH’S HYPOTHESIS: MASS FLOW HYPOTHESIS

• In 1930, Ernst Münch propose a hypothesis to explain how mass flow might be brought about in
sieve tubes

• His model explains, that there is an initial tendency for water to pass by osmosis into A and C

• The tendency is greater for A because the solution in A is more concentrated than in C

• As water enters A, a pressure potential (hydrostatic pressure) builds up in the closed system
A – B – C, forcing water out of C

• Mass flow of solution occurs through B along the hydrostatic pressure gradient so generated

• An osmotic gradient is formed from A to C

• Eventually, the system comes into equilibrium as water dilutes the content of A and solutes
accumulate at C

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…MÜNCH’S HYPOTHESIS: MASS FLOW HYPOTHESIS

A C

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Application of Münch Model in Living Plants

• The leaves which make sugar during photosynthesis are represented by A (- Ψs)

• Water brought to the leaves in xylem (D), enters the leaf cells by osmosis
– Raising their (leaves) potential (hydrostatic) pressure

• At the same time, sugars are used in the sinks (C), for various purposes
– Lowering their (sink cells) solute concentration

• Hydrostatic pressure gradient exists from sources to sinks, resulting in mass flow

• Equilibrium is not reached because solutes are constantly being used at the sinks (C) and made
at the sources

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Pressure flow (mass flow) is the mechanism of translocation

• Phloem sap moves by bulk flow driven by pressure.

• Higher levels of sugar at the source lowers the water potential and causes water to flow into the
tube.

• Removal of sugar at the sink increases the water potential and causes water to flow out of the
tube.

• The difference in hydrostatic pressure drives phloem sap from the source to the sink

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…Pressure flow (mass flow) is the mechanism of translocation

How it works????

1. Loading of sugar into the sieve tube (active transport) at the source reduces the water potential
inside the sieve-tube members and causes the uptake of water (from the xylem)

2. This absorption of water generates hydrostatic pressure that forces the sap to flow along the
tube.

3. The pressure gradient is reinforced by unloading of sugar and loss of water from the tube at
the sink.

4. For leaf-to-root translocation, xylem recycles water from sink to source.

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…Pressure flow (mass flow) is the mechanism of translocation

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