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Which plays a greater role in the movement of phloem sap: Push or pull? What causes this?

2007-02-06 12:56:22 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Botany

2 answers

Push.

Put simply:
As glucose moves into the phloem by diffusion, water moves in to achieve a concentration balance. The increase in water pressure inside the cell pushes the contents of the phloem along.

2007-02-06 13:00:48 · answer #1 · answered by ecolink 7 · 1 0

The nutrients, primarily water, move from an area of low solute concentration to an area of high solute concentration. The plants cell walls are permeable to water so the molecules can be absorbed by a stationary plant cell that has no flagella as do animal cells and can not move to the water, the water is drawn to the plant cell.

Wait, scratch that, I was thinking of xylem. In phloem is is primarily sucrose being transported to various parts of the plant where needed. This one has to do with hydrostatic pressures a diffusion gradient and turgor pressure. It also is an example of osmosis one of four passive transport systems of nutrients in plants along with a separate active transport system.

It also mentions sugar sources to sugar sinks and multidirectional movement unlike xylem which is an upward movement, so I am going with push rather than pull.

2007-02-06 22:47:25 · answer #2 · answered by Professor Armitage 7 · 0 0

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