TRANSPORT FUNCTIONS OF THE ROOT IN INTACT PLANTS

Over the last decades, the development of plant physiology was associated with the investigation of primary physicochemical mechanisms (from the general to the specific). At present, it has become necessary to integrate the accumulated knowledge in order to describe plant life activity in the soil-plant-atmosphere system (from the specific to the general). This approach, from the root hair to the root of an intact transpiring plant, was demonstrated in investigations conducted in my laboratory. Phytomonitoring was shown to be an appropriate integrative method for studying the life activity of the intact plant. Regulating plasmodesma conductance appears to be the most promising solution to the problem of transport functions.