TRANSPORTATION IN PLANTS

14

Learning Objectives
At the end of this lesson the students will be able to :
 Learn how the water and minerals move from soil to the plant.
 Learn how prepared food by the leaf is translocated to various parts of the plant.
 Understand the role of osmosis and transpiration.

of the plant. To understand this we need to recall

Introduction
the anatomy of the plants. Water and mineral
Multicellular organisms possess millions salts absorbed by the roots reach all parts of the
of cells in their body. Every cell needs a constant plant through the xylem. The food synthesised
supply of essential substances like nutrients and by the leaves are translocated to all parts of the
oxygen to maintain life and survival. Food is plant through the phloem. The bulk movement
the only source of energy and every cell gets of substances through the vascular tissue is called
its energy by the breakdown of glucose. The Translocation.
cells utilise this energy and govern various vital ‘Transport’ means to carry things from
activities of life. one place to another. Have you ever wondered
Have you ever wondered how water and how in animals the useful substances are
nutrients absorbed by the root are transported transported to other cells and toxic substances
to the leaves? How is the food prepared by the are removed? In larger organisms transport of
leaves carried to the other parts of the plant? nutrients, salts, oxygen, hormones and waste
Do you know how water reaches the top of tall products around the body are performed by the
plants inspite of not having a circulatory system ‘Circulatory system’. The circulatory system
like animals? Water absorbed by the roots have consists of the circulating fluids, the blood and
to reach entire plant and the food synthesised by lymph and the heart and blood vessels which
the leaves have to be distributed to all the parts form the collecting and transporting system.

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 14.1 Means of Transport
in Plants Cell wall

Protoplasm
The transport of materials in and out of Nucleus
Loss of
water
the cells is carried out by diffusion and active
Normal plant cell Plasmolysed plant cell
transport in plants.
Figure 14.2 Plasmolysis
14.1.1 Diffusion
The movement of molecules in liquid and Activity 1
solids from a region of higher concentration to
a region of their lower concentration without Demonstration of Osmosis
the utilization of energy is called diffusion. This A thistle funnel whose mouth is covered with
is a passive process. a semipermeable membrane, is filled with
sucrose solution. It
is kept inverted in a
beaker containing
water. The water Sug
olutio

will diffuse across

the membrane due ea
Before diffusion After diffusion
to osmosis and T istl
nne
Figure 14.1 Diffusion across cell membranes raise the level of me

the solution in the

14.1.2 Active Transport
funnel.
Active transport utilizes energy to pump
molecules against a concentration gradient. Imbibition
Active transport is carried out by membrane
Imbibition is a type of diffusion in which
bound proteins. These proteins use energy to carry
a solid absorbs water and gets swelled up. eg.
substances across the cell membrane hence they
absorption of water by seeds and dry grapes.
are often referred to as pumps. These pumps can
If it were not for imbibition, seedlings would
transport substances from a low concentration to
a high concentration (‘uphill’ transport). not have been able to emerge out of the soil.

14.1.3 Osmosis 14.2 Root Hair-Water

Absorbing Unit
Osmosis is the movement of solvent
or water molecules from the region of There are millions of root hairs on the tip
higher concentration to the region of lower of the root which absorb water and minerals by
concentration through a semi-permeable diffusion. Root hairs are thin walled, slender
membrane. This process is carried out till an
equilibrium is reached. Osmosis is the passive Region of
maturation
movement of water or any other solvent Root hair
molecules.
Region of
Plasmolysis elongation

It occurs when water moves out of the cell Region of

meristematic
and resulting in the shrinkage of cell membrane Root cap activity

away from the cell wall. Figure 14.3 Root Tip with Root Hairs
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 extension of epidermal cell that increase the Plasma membrane
Casparian strip
Cell Wall
surface area of absorption.

14.3 Pathway of Water

Absorbed by Roots Apoplast
Symplast
Once the water enters the root hairs, the
concentration of water molecules in the root hair
cells become more than that of the cortex. Thus Plasmodesmata Pericycle cells
Endoderm
water from the root hair moves to the cortical cells
by osmosis and then reaches the xylem. From there Figure 14.5 Symplastic and Apoplastic
the water is transported to the stem and leaves. pathways of Water

Xylem
Root hair cell vessels 14.5 Transpi.ration
Root cortex cell
Transpiration is the evaporation of water in
plants through stomata in the leaves. Stomata
are open in the day and closed at night. The
opening and closing of the stomata is due to the
change in turgidity of the guard cells. When
Figure 14.4 T. S. of the root showing movement
water enters into the guard cells, they become
of water from soil to xylem turgid and the stoma open. When the guard
cells lose water, it becomes flaccid and the stoma
14.4 Types of Movement of closes.
Water into the Root Cells

Once water is absorbed by the root hairs, it Plastic

can move deeper into root layers by two distinct bag

pathways:
• Apoplast pathway
• Symplast pathway

14.4.1 Apoplast Pathway Figure. 14.6 Process of Transpiration

The apoplastic movement of water occurs Water evaporates from mesophyll cells of
exclusively through the intercellular spaces and leaves through the open stomata, this lowers
the walls of the cells. Apoplastic movement water concentration in mesophyll cells. As a
does not involve crossing the cell membrane. result, more water is drawn into these cells
This movement is dependent on the gradient. from the xylem present in the veins through
the process of osmosis. As water is lost from the
14.4.2 Symplast Pathway leaves, pressure is created at the top to pull more
In symplastic movement, the water travels water from the xylem to the mesophyll cells, this
through the cells i.e. their cytoplasm; intercellular process is called transpiration pull. This extends
movement is through the plasmodesmata. Water up to the roots causing the roots to absorb more
enter the cells through the cell membrane, hence water from the soil to ensure continuous flow of
the movement is relatively slower. Movement is water from the roots to the leaves.
again down a potential gradient.

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 Transpiration is affected by several external (ii) the concentration of minerals in the soil
factors such as temperature, light, humidity, is usually lower than the concentration of
and wind speed. Internal factors that affect minerals in the root. Therefore, most minerals
transpiration include number and distribution enter the root by active absorption through the
of stomata, percentage of open stomata, water cytoplasm of epidermal cells. This needs energy
status of the plant, canopy structure etc. in the form of ATP. Then it is transported to all
Guard cells Guard cells
parts by transpiration pull.
(swollen) (shrunken)

Chloroplast Vacuole 14.8 Translocation of Mineral

Ions
Cell wall

Stoma Minerals are remobilised from older dying

Nucleus
Stoma open Stoma closed leaves to younger leaves. This phenomenon
Figure. 14.7 Guard cell in turgid and flaccid
can be seen in deciduous plants. Elements like
condition phosphorus, sulphur, nitrogen and potassium
are easily mobilised, while elements like calcium
Importance of Transpiration are not remobilised. Small amounts of material
• Creates transpirational pull for transport of exchange takes place between xylem and phloem.
water
• Supplies water for photosynthesis 14.9 Phloem Transport
• Transports minerals from soil to all parts of
the plant The food synthesised by the leaves are
• Cools the surface of the leaves by transported by the phloem either to the area
evaporation. of requirement or stored. Phloem tissue is
composed of sieve tubes which have sieve plates.
• Keeps the cells turgid; hence, maintains
Cytoplasmic strands pass through the pores in
their shape
the sieve plates.
Phloem transports food (sucrose) from a
14.6 Root Pressure source to a sink. The source is part of the plant
that synthesize food, i.e., the leaf, and sink, is
As ion from the soil are actively transported
the part that needs or stores the food. But, the
into the vascular tissue of the root, water moves
source and sink may be reversed depending on
along and increases the pressure inside the
the season, or the plant’s need.
xylem. This pressure is called root pressure
Since the source-sink relationship is
and is responsible for pushing water to smaller
variable, the direction of movement in the
height of the stem.
phloem can be upwards or downwards, i.e.,
bidirectional. In contrast, the movement is
14.7 Uptake of Minerals always unidirectional in xylem i.e., upwards.
Plants depend on minerals from soil for
its nutritional requirements. All minerals 14.10 Translocation of Sugars
cannot be passively absorbed by the roots.
Two factors account for this: (i) minerals are The mechanism of translocation of sugars
present in the soil as charged particles (ions) from source to sink is through pressure flow
that cannot move across cell membranes and hypothesis Glucose prepared at source (by

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 photosynthesis) is converted to sucrose. Sucrose in the xylem because of forces of adhesion and
moves into the companion cells, then into the cohesion among the molecules.
living phloem sieve tube cells by active transport. Cohesion: The force of attraction between
This process produces a hypertonic condition in molecules of water is called cohesion.
the phloem. Water in the adjacent xylem moves
Adhesion: The force of attraction between
into the phloem by osmosis. As osmotic pressure
molecules of different substances is called
builds up, the phloem sap moves to areas of lower
adhesion.Water molecules stick to a xylem
pressure. By active transport sucrose moves into
because of force of adhesion.
the cells where it is utilised or stored. As sugars
are removed, the osmotic pressure decreases and More to Know
water moves out of the phloem.
Dews are water droplets on the leaves of grass
seen in the early mornings, when the climate
14.11 Ascent of Sap and its is humid and excess of water is present in the
Events – An Overview plants, the excess water is exudated in the form
of liquid. This is due to root pressure .This
The upward movement of water and
phenomenon is called Guttation which
minerals from roots to different plant parts is
takes place through specialized cells called
called ascent of sap. A number of factors play Hydathodes.
a role in ascent of sap and it takes places in
Transpiration Pull: Transpiration through
following steps
stomata creates vacuum which creates a suction.
Ascent of sap called transpiration pull. The transpiration pull
Transpiration creates
transpiration pull sucks the water column from the xylem tubes
and thus water is able to rise to great heights
even in the tallest plants.

Adhesion cohesion makes

Root pressure
pushes water column of water molecules Activity 2
to stem
Osmosis pushes
Demonstration of Root Pressure
Capillary action results in rise
water to up water at the base of stem Choose a small soft stemed plant. Cut the
root hairs
stem horizontally near the base with a
Figure 14.8 Ascent of Sap blade in the morning. You will see drops of
solution oozing out of the cut stem due to
Root Pressure: Water from soil enters the root pressure.
root hairs due to osmosis. Root pressure is
responsible for movement of water up to the
base of the stem.
Capillary Action: Water or any liquid rises in
a capillary tube because of physical forces, this
phenomenon is called capillary action. In the
same way, in stem water rises up to certain
height because of capillary action.
Adhesion-cohesion of Water Molecules:
Water molecules form a continuous column

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