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Growth Sustaining Water Potential Distributions in Plant Roots

Student-Run Research Seminar

Speaker: Brandy Wiegers, UC Davis
Location: 693 Kerr
Start time: Wed, Nov 3 2004, 12:10PM

Primary plant root growth occurs in 10 mm root tip segment where cells expand by stretching the rigid cell wall that constricts their growth. The mainly longitudinal growth occurs as water enters the cells and forces the walls to move. The direction of water flow is dictated by the plant cell water potential, the measurement of the free energy of water, and can be used to model water movement related to primary root growth. This seminar will provide an overview of the plant physiology required to create the root growth model and will examine current progress achieved on the model and discuss possible future work.