Chapter 6
Plant nutrition
6.1 Making carbohydrates using light energy
Plant nutrition
All living organisms need to take many different substances –
nutrients – into their bodies.
Some of these may be used to make new parts or to repair old
parts.
Others may be used to release energy. Taking in useful substances
is called nutrition.
There are several important groups of biological molecules.
These include proteins, fats, carbohydrates and DNA are all organic
substances.
Animals are not able to make organic substances themselves but must
take them in as nutrients when they feed.
Plants, can make these organic nutrients from inorganic substances.
They use carbon dioxide, water and mineral ions, which they take in from the
air and soil.
The process by which they make carbohydrates is called photosynthesis,
which means ‘making with light’.
Chlorophyll
In the chloroplasts of a plant’s leaves, water and carbon dioxide react
together to make carbohydrates and oxygen.
A plant’s leaves contain a green pigment called chlorophyll.
Chlorophyll is able to capture energy from sunlight (Figure 6.2).
When it has done this, it immediately passes the energy on (transfers
it) to water molecules and carbon dioxide molecules, producing a kind
of carbohydrate called glucose.
Figure 6.2: A forest is a giant carbohydrate factory, using sunlight
as fuel and carbon dioxide and water as its raw materials.
The photosynthesis equation
In photosynthesis, water and carbon dioxide react together to produce
glucose and oxygen. They will only do this in the presence of sunlight
and chlorophyll. This reaction as a word equation
A balanced chemical equation, includes reactants and products.
6CO2 + 6H2O ➞ C6H12O6 + 6O2
The formula CO2 represents carbon dioxide, contains one atom of
carbon C, and two atoms of oxygen, O.
The formula C6H12O6 represents glucose.
One molecule of glucose contains six atoms of carbon, twelve atoms
of hydrogen and six atoms of oxygen.
So, six carbon dioxide molecules are needed to make one glucose
molecule.
There are the same number of atoms on each side of the equation.
How a plant uses carbohydrates
There are two products of photosynthesis – glucose
and oxygen.
The oxygen is released into the atmosphere (or into the water
if the plant is aquatic).
The glucose is used for many different purposes.
Releasing useful energy
Some of the glucose is used by the plant to provide energy for
various activities that its cells need to undertake.
For example, energy is needed to move mineral ions into the root
hairs, by active transport.
Energy is also needed to build protein molecules from amino acids,
for growth.
The energy is released from glucose by respiration.
Storing, to use later
Plants usually make much more glucose than they need to use for
energy immediately.
They store it by turning it into starch.
Starch molecules are not soluble in water, so they do not get involved
in the chemical reactions taking place inside the plant cells.
They also do not affect the concentration of the solutions inside the cell, so
they do not cause water to enter or leave by osmosis.
The starch molecules can quickly and easily be broken down to
glucose molecules again when the plant needs them.
Figure 6.5: This is a photomicrograph of cells from a
potato tuber. Iodine solution has been added so the
starch grains are stained blue. You can see some cell
walls if you look closely.
Making sucrose, for transport
Plants, however, do not actually transport glucose.
They first change it into a sugar with larger molecules, called
sucrose.
The sucrose is carried from one part of the plant to another inside
tubes called phloem tubes.
When the sucrose reaches its destination, it can be changed back to
glucose again, and used in respiration to release energy.
Making cellulose, to build cell walls
As plants grow, they make new cells.
Every cell needs a cell wall, so a growing plant must make
cellulose molecules to form these walls.
Cellulose is made by linking glucose molecules in long
chains, in a different way from starch, so the chains stay
straight rather than coiling up into spirals.
Making nectar, to attract pollinators
Many plants reproduce sexually, producing male and female gametes in
flowers.
Unlike animal gametes, the male gametes of flowers cannot move
themselves from place to place.
Instead, they rely on insects, bats or birds to carry them, inside pollen
grains, from one flower to another (Figure 6.6).
Flowers produce nectar that animals can feed on.
Nectar contains different kinds of sugar, all made from the glucose that
Figure 6.6: Insects are attracted to flowers to collect
the carbohydrate-rich nectar, and protein-rich pollen.
Unknown to the insects, they help the flower by
pollinating it.
Making amino acids, to make proteins
Plants use some of the glucose made in photosynthesis to make amino acids.
These amino acids can then be used to make proteins, for growth.
Proteins contain not only carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, but also nitrogen.
So, in order to make amino acids from glucose, plants need a source of nitrogen.
They get this from the soil, in the form of nitrate ions. Usually, these ions are taken in by
active transport, through the root hairs.
The ions can be transported to all parts of the plant, where they can be combined with
glucose to make amino acids.
If a plant cannot get enough nitrate ions, it will not be able to synthesise proteins
effectively, and so will not grow quickly or strongly.
Making other substances, e.g. chlorophyll
Glucose can also be used to make chlorophyll.
Chlorophyll is not a protein, but it does contain nitrogen.
It also contains magnesium.
Plants therefore need to take in magnesium ions, as well as nitrate ions, to
make chlorophyll.
Without these ions, the plant’s leaves will look yellow rather than the green we
would expect when there is plenty of chlorophyll present (Figure 6.7).
If a plant cannot make lots of chlorophyll, it will not be able to photosynthesise
well, and therefore will not grow well.
Figure 6.7: These leaves are on an orange tree,
growing in soil that does not contain enough
magnesium ions. The tree cannot make enough
chlorophyll, so the leaves are not completely green.
6.2 Leaves
Photosynthesis happens inside chloroplasts.
This is where the enzymes and chlorophyll are that catalyse and supply
energy for the reaction.
In a typical plant, most chloroplasts are in the cells in the leaves.
A leaf is a factory for making carbohydrates.
Most plants have leaves that are perfectly adapted to help
photosynthesis to take place as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The structure of a leaf
A leaf consists of a broad, flat part
(Figure 6.8), which is joined to the rest
of the plant by a leaf stalk.
Inside the leaf stalk are collections of
parallel tubes called vascular bundles, Figure 6.8: The structure of a leaf.
which also form the veins in the leaf.
The tubes in the vascular bundles carry
substances to and from the leaf
(Chapter 8).
Photosynthesis happens inside chloroplasts in the leaf cells.
This is where the chlorophyll is found.
The chlorophyll is spread out on membranes, so that a lot of sunlight can reach it.
The raw materials for photosynthesis are carbon dioxide and water, and that sunlight is needed
to provide energy.
Most – but not all leaves have a large surface area and are very thin.
The large surface area allows large amounts of sunlight to fall onto the leaf.
The large surface area also large amounts of sunlight to fall onto the leaf.
The large surface area also increases the rate at which carbon dioxide can diffuse into the leaf
from the air.
Only 0.04% of the air is carbon dioxide, so the structure of a leaf must ensure that it can move in
really easily.
That sunlight can pass right through the leaf, allowing many cells
inside it to photosynthesise.
The thinness also helps carbon dioxide to reach all the cells quite
quickly by diffusion. Water is brought to the leaf from the soil, in tubes
called xylem (pronounced zi lem) vessels.
These run in the vascular bundles, which form the veins in the leaf.
That dicot plants have veins arranged in a network, while monocots
have veins arranged parallel to one another (Figures 6.9 and 6.10).
Figure 6.9: The network of veins in this dicot
leaf carries water to all parts of it.
Figure 6.10: In monocots, the veins usually run
parallel to one another, rather than forming a network.
Tissues in a leaf
Although a leaf is thin, it is made up of several layers of
cells.
You can see these if you look at a transverse section (TS)
of a leaf under a microscope (Figures 6.11, 6.12 and 6.13)
Figure 6.11: A diagram of a transverse section (TS) through a leaf.
Figure 6.12: A scanning electron micrograph of a section
through a leaf from a taro plant (×400).
Figure 6.13: A photomicrograph of a small part of
a leaf from a tea plant (× 400). Can you identify
some of the tissues labelled in Figure 6.11?
Each tissue in a leaf has its own function.
On the top of the leaf is the upper epidermis.
The cells in this layer are packed tightly together, to reduce the
quantity of water vapour escaping from the leaf.
They do not contain chloroplasts, so they cannot photosynthesise.
These cells secrete (make and release) a waxy substance, which
forms a thin, transparent, waterproof covering called the cuticle.
The next layer down is the palisade mesophyll.
This is made up of tall, narrow cells containing very large numbers of chloroplasts.
Their main function is photosynthesis.
As they are close to the top of the leaf, they get plenty of sunlight.
The transparent epidermis cells above them let the light through easily.
Beneath the palisade mesophyll is the spongy mesophyll.
The cells in this tissue also contain chloroplasts, but not as many as in the
palisade cells. They are not as tightly packed, either.
There are many air spaces between them.
These spaces allow carbon dioxide and oxygen to diffuse between the
air and the cells inside the leaf.
The spaces also allow vapour to move from the surface of the cells to
the outside of the leaf.
The bottom of the leaf is covered by a tissue similar to the upper
epidermis, called the lower epidermis.
On some leaves, this tissue makes a cuticle, but usually it does not.
This is because the underside of the leaf does not often have sunlight
falling onto it, so it does not get as hot and therefore does not lose as
much water vapour.
There are openings in the lower epidermis called stomata (singular:
stoma).
Each stoma is surrounded by a pair of guard cells (Figure 6.14). The
guard cells, unlike the other cells in the epidermis, contain chloroplasts.
The guard cells can change their shape, which can open and close the
stomata.
The stomata allow diffusion of carbon dioxide and oxygen in and out of
the leaf.
Water vapour also diffuses out of the leaf through the stomata.
Figure 6.14: This photograph of the lower epidermis of a
leaf was taken using a light microscope (× 350).
• Figure 6.15 summarises how
the raw materials for
photosynthesis – carbon
dioxide and water – travel to a
chloroplast in a palisade cell
Figure 6.15: How the raw materials for photosynthesis get
into a palisade cell.
