Transport in Plants

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  • Created by: Bethany
  • Created on: 09-04-19 12:19

Section 3: Transport in Plants

  • Cells in all living organsims need a variety of substances to live, e.g. water, minerals, sugars, and to remove waste substances
  • In unicellular organisms, substances can diffuse directly into/out of cells across the membrane
  • The diffusion rate is quick because the distance to travel is short
  • In multicellular organisms, direct diffusion from outer surfaces would be too slow because the distance would be too long to reach every cell
  • Multicellular organsims have transport systems to move substances quickly
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Plant Transport Systems

  • Plants have two systems to transport substances: Xylem tubes and Phloem tubes
  • Xylem tubes transport water and minerals by carrying them from the roots up the shoot to the leaves in the transpiration stream
  • Phloem tubes transport sugars and amino acids from the leaves to other parts of the plant
  • This movement of "food" around the plant is known as translocation
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PAPER 2: Root Hairs

  • Cells on plant roots grow into long "hairs" which stick into the soil
  • Each branch of a root is covered in millions of hairs, creating a large surface area to absorb water from the soil
  • Water is taken in by osmosis: there's usually a higher concentration of water in soil than inside plant, so water is drawn into root hair cells
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