Journal article
Modeling the Hydrodynamics of Phloem Sieve Plates
Frontiers in plant science, Vol.3, pp.151-151
07/13/2012
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/107876
PMCID: PMC3395867
PMID: 22811681
Abstract
Sieve plates have an enormous impact on the efficiency of the phloem vascular system of plants, responsible for the distribution of photosynthetic products. These thin plates, which separate neighboring phloem cells, are perforated by a large number of tiny sieve pores and are believed to play a crucial role in protecting the phloem sap from intruding animals by blocking flow when the phloem cell is damaged. The resistance to the flow of viscous sap in the phloem vascular system is strongly affected by the presence of the sieve plates, but the hydrodynamics of the flow through them remains poorly understood. We propose a theoretical model for quantifying the effect of sieve plates on the phloem in the plant, thus unifying and improving previous work in the field. Numerical simulations of the flow in real and idealized phloem channels verify our model, and anatomical data from 19 plant species are investigated. We find that the sieve plate resistance is correlated to the cell lumen resistance, and that the sieve plate and the lumen contribute almost equally to the total hydraulic resistance of the phloem translocation pathway.
Metrics
8 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Modeling the Hydrodynamics of Phloem Sieve Plates
- Creators
- Kaare Hartvig Jensen - Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Technical University of DenmarkDaniel Leroy Mullendore - School of Biological Sciences, Washington State UniversityNoel Michele Holbrook - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard UniversityTomas Bohr - Department of Physics, Technical University of DenmarkMichael Knoblauch - School of Biological Sciences, Washington State UniversityHenrik Bruus - Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Technical University of Denmark
- Publication Details
- Frontiers in plant science, Vol.3, pp.151-151
- Academic Unit
- Biological Sciences, School of
- Publisher
- Frontiers Research Foundation
- Identifiers
- 99900547170001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article