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PHLOEM TRANSPORT IN TREES

Zero-calorie sugar delivery to roots

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Resistance to moving sugars from foliage to roots is high in trees, suggesting that the transport mechanism found in herbs might not work in trees. Now with new measurements of phloem structure and leaf turgor pressure, it has been shown that the Münch pressure-flow hypothesis can also explain sugar transport in tall trees.

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Fig. 1: Vascular transport in tall trees.

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Correspondence to Michael G. Ryan.

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Ryan, M.G., Robert, E.M.R. Zero-calorie sugar delivery to roots. Nature Plants 3, 922–923 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-017-0070-0

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