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PHLOEM LOADING

Low sugar, under pressure?

The difference in phloem pressure is the driving force that moves photosynthetic products and other solutes from the source to the sink. Measurements with emerging technologies reveal that sugar loading is not essential for maintaining phloem pressure and phloem bulk flow in the maize sugar-loading-defective mutant sut1.

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Fig. 1: Model of the phloem loading and major solutes contributing to the hydrostatic pressure at a rank-2 intermediate vein of a mature leaf of maize.

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Correspondence to Li-Qing Chen.

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Chen, LQ. Low sugar, under pressure?. Nat. Plants 8, 102–103 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01034-5

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