Plant Nutrition

• nutrient - refers to any substance required for the growth and maintenance of an organism
• AUTOTROPHS

  organisms that obtain energy from sunlight a n d chemicals t o

  produce their own food.
• HETEROTROPHS

  organisms that cannot make their own food and obtain their energy

  from other organisms.
• CARBON DIOXIDE- r a w

  materials

  needed

  photosynthesis, t h e process bywhichplantsconvertthe

  energy from sunlight intochemicalenergy
• ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS OR ELEMENTS- which include

  macronutrients that are normally required in amounts above 0.5% of

  the plant's dry weight; and

  micronutrients which are required in a minute or trace amounts;
• SYMPLAST ROUTE - THROUGH PLASMODESMATA
• APOPLAST ROUTE -

  ALONG CELL WALLS
• ROOT HAIRS

  Slender extensions o f specialized

  epidermal cells that greatly increase t h e surface area available for absorption.
• ROOT NODULES

  Localizedswellingsinrootsofcertainplants w h e r e bacterial cells exist symbiotically with

  theplant.Thebacteriahelptheplantfix

  nitrogen and in turn, the bacteria were able to utilize some organic compounds provided

  byt h eplant
• MYCORRIZHAE

  asymbioticinteractionbetweenayoungrootanda fungus.Thefungusobtainssugarsandnitrogen- containingcompoundsfromrootcellswhilethe plantwasablet og e tsomescarcemineralsthatthe

  fungusisbetterabletoabsorbfromthesoil
• SYMBIOSIS OF PLANTS AND SOIL MICROBES

  • Two or more distinct organisms living together for the benefit of one or both.
• SYMBIOSIS OF PLANTS AND FUNGI

  • Any association between two species population that live together is symbiotic, whether the species benefit, harm, or have no effect on one another
• PARASITISM

  • Parasitism is defined as the relationship

  between different species in which one

  organism lives on or in the other

  organism and benefits from it by causing some harm.
• PREDATION

  • A biological interaction where one

  organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey.