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Plant Physiology: Understand The Polar Transport of Auxin in Plants

Writer's picture: PlantHouse EnterprisePlantHouse Enterprise

Dive into the fascinating world of plant physiology and explore the unique mechanism of polar auxin transport! This video explains how the plant hormone auxin moves directionally within the plant, influencing growth and development. Learn the meaning of "polar" in this context, and understand the significance of the root-shoot junction. We'll define acropetal and basipetal transport, and unravel how these directional movements are crucial for auxin's function. Discover how gravity plays a role in guiding auxin movement and why this polar transport is essential for plant development.


Video Transcript:

Okay, let's move on. The way auxin moves in plants, this is important, it's called polar auxin transport. Why is it polar? There is a concept in plants called the root-shoot junction. In order to understand this concept, polar auxin, you need to understand what is meant by polar. Not Polar Express. Polar means opposite, end to end, south, north, east, west, like a magnet.


Magnets attach to each other when it's the same pole or different poles? Different poles, right? So, polar, polar, polar, it means the opposite, end to end. Opposite, um, sorry, I want to, to write, um, east and west, uh, north, west, south is, okay.


And then you learn about the new terminology here. I think it should be mentioned that, acropetal, basipetal. Have you seen this word before? Acropetal means towards the apex. Basipetal means towards the base, okay.


Right, so auxin, it will always go to the base, to the apex, somehow, right? I'll, I'll show why. When you look at this plant this way, you need to understand now the plant is divided into two body regions, the shoot region and the root region, and the base of it is called the root-shoot junction, and this is the important bit, okay? The moment, the moment you go beyond this root-shoot base junction, the orientation of the plant gets, um, reversed, okay?


This is the shoot apical meristem, okay? So, when the movement involved from the shoot apical meristem to the base, the junction base, it is called basipetal, so that's normal. If the, um, transport of the chemical is starting from the junction base to the shoot apical meristem, that's called acropetal. That's normal as well. But when you go to the root, this has now become the apex, okay?


So, the movement of the chemical from the apex of the root, which is at the bottom of the soil, all the way to the root-shoot junction, this is called basipetal, towards the base. However, for the acropetal, from the base going down to the root tip, it's called acropetal, towards the apex, okay? So, this concept is very important, and do not get mixed up between the two, okay?


And the auxin, it will move like in here. This is the, the middle region of the, uh, of the seedling, and then this is the root-shoot junction. When, when this is transferred to a block, you will see that the auxin will go from up to down, okay? Because, for, for this, um, uh, seedling, the auxin is primarily produced in here. When you turn it, the transport is not happening, okay?


Because, um, auxin is actually kind of tied to gravity, okay? If it was not for gravity, even after you have turned, uh, originally, A is top, B is down, it should be following from here to here, but that's, that's not what's happening, okay? So, due to gravity, you will see in a bit why gravity plays an important role, um, in here.


So, your auxin can actually move from the bottom of the soil all the way up, but actually not all the way to this base, it's just in this region. But that movement is still considered as acropetal, right? Why, why the auxin from the tip of the root cannot go all the way up here? Because of gravity, okay? Just count from the top to down, from this shoot region to down here, that's fine, okay? You are following gravity anyway, and you'll see in a bit.


Keywords: Plant Physiology, Auxin, Polar Transport, Acropetal, Basipetal, Plant Growth, Plant Hormones, Root Shoot Junction



Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons

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