Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Problems of adaptation to a terrestrial environment
- Chapter 2 An overview of plant structure and development
- Chapter 3 The protoplast of the eukaryotic cell
- Chapter 4 Structure and development of the cell wall
- Chapter 5 Meristems of the shoot and their role in plant growth and development
- Chapter 6 Morphology and development of the primary vascular system of the stem
- Chapter 7 Sympodial systems and patterns of nodal anatomy
- Chapter 8 The epidermis
- Chapter 9 The origin of secondary tissue systems and the effect of their formation on the primary body in seed plants
- Chapter 10 The vascular cambium: structure and function
- Chapter 11 Secondary xylem
- Chapter 12 The phloem
- Chapter 13 Periderm, rhytidome, and the nature of bark
- Chapter 14 Unusual features of structure and development in stems and roots
- Chapter 15 Secretion in plants
- Chapter 16 The root
- Chapter 17 The leaf
- Chapter 18 Reproduction and the origin of the sporophyte
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Chapter 15 - Secretion in plants
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Problems of adaptation to a terrestrial environment
- Chapter 2 An overview of plant structure and development
- Chapter 3 The protoplast of the eukaryotic cell
- Chapter 4 Structure and development of the cell wall
- Chapter 5 Meristems of the shoot and their role in plant growth and development
- Chapter 6 Morphology and development of the primary vascular system of the stem
- Chapter 7 Sympodial systems and patterns of nodal anatomy
- Chapter 8 The epidermis
- Chapter 9 The origin of secondary tissue systems and the effect of their formation on the primary body in seed plants
- Chapter 10 The vascular cambium: structure and function
- Chapter 11 Secondary xylem
- Chapter 12 The phloem
- Chapter 13 Periderm, rhytidome, and the nature of bark
- Chapter 14 Unusual features of structure and development in stems and roots
- Chapter 15 Secretion in plants
- Chapter 16 The root
- Chapter 17 The leaf
- Chapter 18 Reproduction and the origin of the sporophyte
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Summary
Perspective
Waste products in animals are excreted to the exterior through the digestive system, the urinary system, and, to a lesser extent, through sweat glands. By contrast, in the plant, waste products of metabolism as well as substances that will be further utilized are stored within individual cells or transferred to regions of living or non-living tissues or into cavities and ducts within the organism. A good example is the transfer of waste metabolites into the secondary wood (with the consequent formation of heartwood) where they are isolated from the functional regions of the plant body. The transfer of metabolites from one site to another is referred to as secretion rather than excretion although some substances are transferred to the plant surface, such as precursor compounds of cutin and waxes and a variety of substances that exit the plant through glands and glandular hairs. This concept of secretion also includes the transfer of substances within single cells such as, e.g., the movement of enzymes to chloroplasts, sites of photosynthesis, and the transport in vesicles of precursors of cellulose to sites of wall synthesis. We can, thus, define secretion in plants as the transfer of certain intermediate or end products of metabolism from one region to another within the cell or out of the protoplast to another part of the plant body.
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- Information
- An Introduction to Plant Structure and DevelopmentPlant Anatomy for the Twenty-First Century, pp. 257 - 271Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005