Resource Acquisition and Transport in Vascular Plants Flashcards
What is the overall function of the xylem?
Transport water and minerals from roots to shoots.
What is the overall function of the phloem?
The transport of products of photosynthesis from the source of production to sinks.
What are the things that affect light absorption in a plant (5)?
- Shoot length
- Phyllotaxy - leaves are not directly side by side in most angiosperms (alternate, spiral) which minimizes shade covering leaves below
- Canopy depth - Lower leaves (more shaded) are shed when the respire more than they photosynthesize
- Leaf area index - percentage of ground area covered by the plant
- Leaf orientation - horizontal leaves capture more light in low-light conditions, but, vertical leaves are less damaged by the sun and allow light to reach lower leaves in sunny conditions
What are some characteristics of roots that help in their acquisition of water and minerals (3)?
- grow to adjust for local conditions ( branch more near high NO3)
- Are less competitive with other roots of the same plant than with roots of another plant
- Form mutualistic relationships with fungi called mycorrhizae (helped plants to colonize land, increased surface area for absorption of water and minerals)
What are the two major pathways through plants and what do they consist of?
Apoplast - Everything external to the plasma membrane
Symplast - the entire mass of cytosol, including the plasmodesmata (cytoplasmic channels that connect cells)
What are the three transport routes for water and solutes in a plant?
Apoplastic - through cell walls and extracellular spaces
symplastic - through the cytosol and plasmodesmata
transmembrane - across cell walls AND plasma membrane
How is the membrane potential of the plasma membrane established in regards to the short distance transport of solutes across the plasma membrane?
Proton pumps that use ATP the transport protons (H+) out of the cell to create a membrane potential
What are some ways that protons (H+) are used in the short-distance transport of solutes across the plasma membrane? How do some Ions cross the membrane?
Neutral solutes (such as sugars like sucrose) can be cotransported into the cell by using H+ as cotransporters
Cotransporters can also be used for ions (important for the uptake of nitrates in plants)
There are also ion channels that open and close in response to voltage, allowing for specific ions to diffuse across them.
In regards to the short-distance transport of water across the plasma membrane, what is water potential?
Water potential is a measurement of solute concentration + physical pressure.
How does water potential determine the direction of water movement? What is the unit that water potential is measured in?
Water travels from areas of higher potential to areas of lower potential.
megapascals (MPa)
What does MPa of 0 equal?
pure water at sea level at room temperature
This is equilibrium
What is the equation for water potential?
Water potential = solute potential + pressure potential
Ws = solute potential
Wp = pressure potential
Why does an increase in solute concentration cause a decrease in solute potential?
Solute potential will always be negative because there will always be some solutes added to water, it will never be pure water.
Whens solutes are added to water they bind the the water molecules, leaving less free water molecules to do work.
Can pressure potential be both positive or negative?
What is the pressure potential in a plant usually?
What can be used to describe the pressure potential?
YES, it is all relative to the atmosphere.
In a plant the pressure potential is usually under positive pressure
Turgor pressure - the pressure exerted by the plasma membrane against the cell wall, and the cell wall against the protoplast, this includes the plasma membrane.
If a cell is placed in a solution that has a higher water potential than inside the, what will happen? What about if the water potential is lower than inside the cell?
Water potential higher outside = water moves inside the cell, becomes turgid
Water potential lower outside = water moves out of cell, becomes plasmolyzed
Be able to use algebra to solve for different variable in the water potential equation.
Look at notes in powerpoint for reference.
When a plant loses its turgor what happens to it? Can this be reversed?
It becomes wilted, can be reversed with water movement into the cell.
What are aquaporins? Do they affect water potential?
These are transport proteins in the cell membrane that facilitate the passage of water and affect the rate of water movement across the membrane
They DO NOT affect water potential
What is bulk-flow (long-distance transport)? Where does this occur? What makes this type of movement so efficient?
This is the movement of fluid and solutes driven by pressure.
This occurs in the tracheids and vessel elements of xylem, and sieve-tube elements of phloem
What makes this efficient is the fact that tracheids and vessel elements lack cytoplasm, and sieve-tube elements have very few organelles in their cytoplasm. Cytoplasm and organelles act as “clogs in the plumbing”, by removing these bulk flow is better facilitated.
Where does the absorption of of water begin the transport of water and solutes?
Near the root tips where the root hairs are located (epidermis is permeable to water), root hairs account for most of the surface area of the root
Once the root hairs absorb the soil solution (water and mineral mix) how does this help with the overall absorption of the solution?
Root hairs absorb the solution and the solution travels along the cell walls of the EPIdermal cells and passes freely into the extracellular space of the cortex cells, this increases the exposure to soil solution to more than just the outer EPIdermal cells by also including exposure to the cortex cells.
If the soil typically has lower mineral concentrations than in the root cells, how do the minerals get inside the cells?
ACTIVE TRANSPORT
What is the ENDoderm? What are some special structures of this? What is its function?
These are the innermost layer of cells in the root cortex that surround the vascular cylinder.
Function: the final checkpoint in the selective passage of mineral from cortex to the vascular cylinder
The CASPARIAN STRIP blocks the apoplastic transport of water and minerals from the cortex to the vascular cylinder. THis means that water and minerals have to pass the selectively permeable plasma membrane of the endordermal cell before entering the vascular cylinder
How can water and minerals cross the cortex?
the symplastic or apoplastic route.
What is the casparian strip made of?
Suberin - a waxy material that is impervious to water and dissolved minerals.
LOOK AT 36.3 PICTURE OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRANSPORT.
DO IT.
What is the substance that is being transported from the roots to the leaves via bulk transport?
XYLEM SAP
What is transpiration?
The evaporation of water from a plants surface, this evaporated water is replaced as water travels up roots