Q.Explain movement of water in the root.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Water moves through the root radially by a relay of falling DPD from the epiblema to the pericycle, via the apoplast (cell walls, blocked at the Casparian strip) or symplast (plasmodesmata) pathway, then enters the ad...
Step 1. Entry into the root hair. Water first enters the root-hair cell by the imbibition–diffusion–osmosis sequence, making the root hair turgid and lowering its own DPD.
Step 2. Cell-to-cell relay across the cortex. The immediately adjacent cortical cell has a higher DPD (because its own osmotic pressure is greater), so it draws water from the now-turgid root hair, itself becoming turgid; this repeats across successive cortical cells, so a continuous gradient of suction pressure (DPD) runs from the epiblema inward, moving water rapidly through the loosely arranged, water-permeable cortex.
Step 3. Crossing the endodermis. Water passes through passage cells of the endodermis (notably in monocot roots) and reaches the pericycle, which lies close to the protoxylem. …
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