Root pressure

Root pressure is osmotic pressure within the cells of a root system that causes sap to rise through a plant stem to the leaves.

Root pressure occurs in the xylem of some vascular plants when the soil moisture level is high either at night or when transpiration is low during the day. When transpiration is high, xylem sap is usually under tension, rather than under pressure, due to transpirational pull. At night in some plants, root pressure causes guttation or exudation of drops of xylem sap from the tips or edges of leaves. Root pressure is studied by removing the shoot of a plant near the soil level. Xylem sap will exude from the cut stem for hours or days due to root pressure. If a pressure gauge is attached to the cut stem, the root pressure can be measured.

Root pressure is caused by active distribution of mineral nutrient ions into the root xylem. Without transpiration to carry the ions up the stem, they accumulate in the root xylem and lower the water potential. Water then diffuses from the soil into the root xylem due to osmosis. Root pressure is caused by this accumulation of water in the xylem pushing on the rigid cells. Root pressure provides a force, which pushes water up the stem, but it is not enough to account for the movement of water to leaves at the top of the tallest trees. The maximum root pressure measured in some plants can raise water only to about 7 meters, and the tallest trees are over 100 meters tall.

The endodermis in the root is important in the development of root pressure. The endodermis is a single layer of cells between the cortex and the pericycle. These cells allow water movement until it reaches the Casparian strip, made of suberin, a waterproof substance. The Casparian strip prevents mineral nutrient ions from moving passively through the endodermal cell walls. Water and ions move in these cell walls via the apoplast pathway. Ions outside the endodermis must be actively transported across an endodermal cell membrane to enter or exit the endodermis. Once inside the endodermis, the ions are in the symplast pathway. They cannot diffuse back out again but can move from cell to cell via plasmodesmata or be actively transported into the xylem. Once in the xylem vessels or tracheids, ions are again in the apoplast pathway. Xylem vessels and tracheids transport water up the plant but lack cell membranes. The Casparian strip substitutes for their lack of cell membranes and prevents accumulated ions from diffusing passively in apoplast pathway out of the endodermis. The ions accumulating interior to the endodermis in the xylem create a water potential gradient and by osmosis, water diffuses from the moist soil, across the cortex, through the endodermis and into the xylem.

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