Root hair cells

• Absorption of water:

  • Water is absorbed into the root hair cells by osmosis
  • Water moves from the higher water potential in the soil to the lower water potential in the root hair cell
  • Root hair cells have a large projection to increase surface area for absorption of water
• Absorption of minerals:

  • minerals are absorbed into the root hair against their concentration gradient by active transport
  • Active transport requires energy so root hair cells are specialised by having many mitochondria so that they can carry out a lot of respiration to release energy required for active transport of minerals