Nutrient Uptake by Plant Cells

Plant science theory had assumed that nutrients required a specific transporter to carry them across the cell membrane to the inside of the cell. Researchers at the University of Navarra in Spain have shown that in the presence of saccharose, cells from parts of the plant that store nutrients "swallow up" compounds to get them across the barrier.

The research assumes that specific transporters are needed for the uptake of some nutrients by cells, but that most nutrients penetrate the cell by endocytosis, a process in which small packets of nutrients are enveloped in cell membrane and taken into the cell.

Saccharose seems to be essential to endocytosis; other sugars did not trigger the process in experiments conducted by the Navarra team. Now the researchers are curious if the saccharose taken into the cell by this method is that used by the cell to produce starch. Understanding the mechanism could aid the development of improved plant varieties.

Link: Mechanism for the captation of nutrients in plants- unknown to date from Basque Research

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:00 PM on June 13, 2005

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