TRANSPORT in PLANTS

What must be transported in plants?

1. H2O & minerals

2. Gas

3. Sugars
How do minerals enter plants?
Like water, minerals enter plants through the roots. However, they do
this by different methods.

Water passively diffuses with a

concentration gradient from the soil
into the roots and up the stem.

Minerals are usually found in the soil

in lower concentrations than they
occur in the plant.
Why can they not be transported by
diffusion?

Diffusion cannot take place against a

concentration gradient.

Instead, minerals enter the roots by active transport.

1. Transport of Water & Minerals
 H2O is moved from
root to leaves
 Occurs in the xylem
 Transpiration  loss
of H2O from leaves
(thru stomata)
 Processes
 Evaporation
 Cohesion
 Adhesion
 Negative Pressure
Which cells transport nutrients?
Plants contain two types of cell
adapted for transportation.

Xylem cells transport water and

minerals up the stem from the roots to
the shoots and leaves. This transport
occurs in one direction only.
Phloem cells transport sugars produced
in the leaves up
and down the stem to growing and
storage tissues.

The cells are arranged in plants as vascular bundles.

Both phloem and xylem form continuous systems connecting

roots, stems and leaves.
How is xylem adapted for transportation?
Water and minerals travel in xylem
vessels.

Xylem vessels have thick cellulose

cell walls, strengthened by lignin.
The inside of the cell is hollow.
Xylem vessels are dead cells.

Xylem vessels transport water and

minerals from the roots to the
shoot and leaves. This transport
only occurs in one direction.

The thick walls of xylem cells also

help support plants.
2. Gas Exchange
 Photosynthesis
 CO2 in
 O2 out
 Transport occurs through
stomata
 Surrounded by guard
cells
 Control opening & closing
of stomata
 Respiration
 O2 in
 CO2 out
 Roots exchange gases w/
air spaces in the soil

Why can over-watering kill a

plant?
3. Transport of Sugar
 Occurs in the phloem
 Bulk Flow
 Calvin Cycle (Dark
Rxns) in leaves loads
sugar into the
phloem
 Positive Pressure
Movement
 Source (where sugar
is made) to Sink
(where sugar is
stored/consumed)
Transport in Plants
 Three main physical forces that fuel
transport in plants:
1. Cellular
a. Gases from the environment into plant cells
b. H2O & minerals into root hairs
2. Short-Distance Transport
a. Cell to cell
b. Moving sugar from leaves into phloem
3. Long-Distance Transport
Moving substances through the xylem & phloem
of a whole plant
 1. Cellular Transport
 Passive
 Diffusion down a concentration gradient
 Occurs faster w/ proteins
 Carrier Proteins (facilitated diffusion)
 Active
 Requires energy
 Proton Pump
 Pumps H+ out of a cell
 Creates a proton gradient (stored energy)

 Generates a membrane potential

 Used to transport many solutes

What is active transport?
Active transport uses energy from respiration to move substances
against a concentration gradient.

Specific minerals from the soil soil root hair cell

enter through channels in the
cell walls of the root hair
cells.

The minerals then travel

around the plant in the xylem
vessels.

Plants may take up some

minerals in the soil but not
others. Why is it important
that plants select which
minerals to transport?
mineral
Cellular Transport –Active Transport
Cellular Transport -Water Potential
 Combined effects of solute concentration
& physical pressure
 Moves from high H2O potential to a low
H2O potential
 Inversely proportional to solute concentration
 Adding solutes – Lowers water potential

 Directly proportional to pressure

 Raising pressure- Raises water potential

 Negative pressure (tension) decreases water

potential
 2. Short-Distance Transport
 Movement from cell to
cell by…
 Transmembrane
 Crosses membranes
& cell walls
 Slow, but controlled
 Called the apoplastic
route
 Cytosol (cytoplasm)
 Plasmodesmata
junctions connect the
cytosol of
neighboring cells
 Called the symplast
route
3. Long-Distance Transport
 Bulk Flow
 Movement of a fluid driven by pressure
 Xylem: tracheids & vessel elements
 Negative pressure

 Transpiration creates negative pressure by

pulling xylem up from the roots

 Phloem: Sieve tubes
 Positive pressure

 Loading of sugar at the leaves generates a

high positive pressure, which pushes phloem

sap thru the sieve tubes