Methods for Assessing the Role of Phloem Transport in Plant Stress Responses.
Delivery of carbohydrates to tissues that need them under stress is important for plant defenses and survival. Yet, little is known on how phloem function is altered under stress, and how that influences plant responses to stress. This is because phloem is a challenging tissue to study. It consists of cells of various types with soft cell walls, and the cells show strong wounding reactions to protect their integrity, making both imaging and functional studies challenging. This chapter summarizes theories on how phloem transport is affected by stress and presents methods that have been used to gain the current knowledge. These techniques range from tracer studies and imaging to carbon balance and anatomical analyses. Advances in these techniques in the recent years have considerably increased our ability to investigate phloem function, and application of the new methods on plant stress studies will help provide a more comprehensive picture of phloem function and its limitations under stress.
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D001692:Biological Transport D015415:Biomarkers D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism D002244:Carbon D055864:Droughts D052585:Phloem D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena D018547:Plant Stems D010944:Plants D013312:Stress, Physiological
Phloem Stress Tracer Carbon balance Drought Hydraulic conductivity Isotope NMR PET Pathogen Stem diameter variation