Plant physiology conduction

Gollan, T., Passioura, J.B. Munns, R. (1986). Soil water status affects the stomatal conductance of fully turgid wheat and sunflower leaves. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology, 13, 459-64. 

The underlying assumption driving marine natural products chemistry research is that secondary metabolites produced by marine plants, animals, and microorganisms will be substantially different from those found in traditional terrestrial sources simply because marine life forms are very different from terrestrial life forms and the habitats which they occupy present very different physiological and ecological challenges. The expectation is that marine organisms will utilize completely unique biosynthetic pathways or exploit unique variations on well established pathways. The marine natural products chemistry research conducted to date has provided many examples that support these expectations. 

Physiological or biochemical changes have been observed in plants exposed to air pollutants, including alterations in net photosynthesis, stomate response, and metabolic activity. Such exposure studies have been conducted under controlled laboratory conditions. An understanding of the processes involved will help to identify the cause of reduction in yield. 

Although several allelochemicals (primarily phenolic acids and flavonoids) have been shown to inhibit mineral absorption, only the phenolic acids have been studied at the physiological and biochemical levels to attempt to determine if mineral transport across cellular membranes can be affected directly rather than indirectly. Similar and even more definitive experiments need to be conducted with other allelochemicals that are suspected of inhibiting mineral absorption. Membrane vesicles isolated from plant cells are now being used to elucidate the mechanism of mineral transport across the plasma membrane and tonoplast (67, 68). Such vesicle systems actively transport mineral ions and thus can serve as simplified systems to directly test the ability of allelochemicals to inhibit mineral absorption by plant cells. 

Soar, C. J., J. Speirs et al. (2004). Gradients in stomatal conductance, xylem sap ABA and bulk leaf ABA along canes of Vitis vinifera cv. Shiraz Molecular and physiological studies investigating their source. Fund. Plant Biol. 31(6) 659-669. 

Hopf and Kandler92 conducted a detailed investigation of the physiological importance of umbelliferose in plants, and showed that it serves as a temporary reserve-carbohydrate, similar to the role of sucrose. In the ripe fruits of some species of Umbellifereae, the concentration of this oligosaccharide is higher than that of sucrose. On the other hand, during photosynthesis, it is less effectively translocated from the leaves than sucrose the turnover is also slower. 

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