Nutrition of plants and animals
Friday, April 1, 2022 10:33 AM
• What do plants need to live?
○ Plants require carbon containing molecules and ATP for producing sugar
through photosynthesis:
§ Yet plants cannot live on sugar alone
○ Plants must harvest a wide variety of elements in the form of ions and
molecules
§ Nutrients are found in soil
§ The one-way flow of water carries these nutrients up the xylem
• Water movement in vascular plants: The cohesion-tension theory
1. Open stomata create a water potential gradient between the leaf
interior and its surroundings
2. Water evaporates from the walls of the parenchyma cells
3. Negative force generated at the air-water interface, pulls water from
roots to leaf
○ The sun - not ATP - provides the energy required to move water through
the xylem
○ What could be done to prevent the transpiration and keep water inside
the plant?
• What nutrients are essential?
○ Essential nutrients
§ Element or compound required for normal growth and
reproduction
○ Most vascular plants have 17 essential elements:
§ Three elements make up 96% of the dry mass of the plant:
□ Carbon
□ Hydrogen
□ Oxygen
○ Macronutrients
§ Plants need large quantities of macronutrients, certain elements,
from soil
§ Some of the major components of nucleic acid, proteins, and
phospholipids
§ Of the particular importance are these macronutrients
, □ Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium
□ Often act as limiting nutrients
® Their availability limit plant growth
○ Micronutrients
§ Plants require micronutrients in small quantities
§ Usually act as cofactors of specific enzymes
§ Micronutrients may be vital to plant health, even though they are
required in tiny amounts
□ Some but definitely not all (ones we need to know):
® Cobalt
® Sodium
® Silicon
• Nutritional Adaptations of Plants
○ Autotrophs: 99% of living plants are autotrophs:
§ Synthesize their own sugar through photosynthesis
○ However, a few plants don’t follow these rules:
§ Some plants parasitize other plants
§ Some plants create a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with
bacteria and fungi
§ Some plants appear to live on air
§ Some plants catch and digest insects
• Parasitic plants
○ Parasites:
§ Live on or in a host, obtaining water or nutrients from host and
reducing host's fitness
○ Heterotrophs plants
§ Produce structures that can penetrate host vascular system to
obtain water and nutrients
○ Most parasitic plants are photosynthetic and extract water and ions
from the xylem of host plant
• Epiphytic plants
○ Epiphytes - non parasitic:
§ Grow in absence of soil, often on leaves or branches of trees
○ Plants absorb water and nutrients from rainwater, dust, and particles
that collect in their tissues:
§ Nutrients are actually absorbed through the leaves
• Carnivorous plants
○ Carnivorous trap insects and other animals
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