UNIT – I

Introduction to crop physiology

 Introduction
 As primary producers, plants convert solar energy to
chemical energy.
 Being non motile, plants must grow toward light, and
they must have efficient vascular systems for movement
of water, mineral nutrients, and photosynthetic products
throughout the plant body.
 Green land plants must also have mechanisms for
avoiding dehydration.
 Noggle and Fritz
(1983) described the
Plant Physiology as “the
science concerned
with processes and
functions, the response
of plants to changes in
environment and the
growth and
development that
results from responses.
 Crop physiology is concerned with the
processes and functions of the crops at cellular,
sub-cellular and whole plant levels in response
to environmental variables and growth.
 In short, physiology is the study of
functional aspects of crop plants.
 Importance in Agriculture

 In horticulture and agriculture along with food

science, plant physiology is an important topic
relating to fruits, vegetables, and other consumable
parts of plants.

 Topics studied include: Climatic requirements, fruit

drop, nutrition, ripening, fruit set.
 Production of food crops also based on the
study of plant physiology, covering topics
such as: optimal planting and harvesting
times and post harvest storage of plant
products for human consumption and the
production of secondary products like
drugs and cosmetics.
 Superior varieties can be selected on the basis
of physiological traits (LAI, WUE, high
uptake efficiency, translocation efficiency
etc.) and can be incorporated in crop
improvement programme.
 Cell
 Plants are multicellular organisms composed of
millions of cells with specialized functions.

 At maturity, such specialized cells may differ greatly

from one another in their structures.

 However, all plant cells have the same basic

eukaryotic organization: They contain a nucleus, a
cytoplasm, and sub cellular organelles, and they are
enclosed in a membrane that defines their
boundaries.
Cell ultrastructure
 Diffusion
 Diffusion is the net movement of molecules or atoms
from a region of high concentration to a region of
low concentration.

 This is also referred to as the movement of a

substance down a concentration gradient.
 Diffusion also refers to the process by which
molecules intermingle as a result of their
kinetic energy of random motion.
 Importance of diffusion in plant life
 It is an essential process in exchange of gases
(O2 and CO2) during respiration and
photosynthesis.

 Uptake of minerals is also affected by the

process of diffusion.

 It helps in removal of excess water by the

process of transpiration.
Cont…….

 Translocation of organic solutes also takes

place by diffusion means.

 Fragrance of flowers or sweet scent emitted

by flowers spread in air by diffusion means
attracts insects to materialize pollination.
 Osmosis
 Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of
solvent molecules through a semi-permeable
membrane into a region of higher solute
concentration, in the direction that tends to
equalize the solute concentrations on the two
sides.
 Importance of osmosis in plants
 It is a mean by which plant cells maintain their
water content despite the loss of water to the
air that is constantly occurring.

 It provides turgidity to the softer tissues and

is, therefore, essential for their mechanical
support.

 It controls the absorption of water by root

hairs from the soil.
 Cell to cell diffusion of water is also affected
by osmosis.

 Conduction of water from xylem elements to

the neighboring cells is controlled by
osmosis.

 Growing tips of roots remain turgid because

of osmosis and are, thus, able to penetrate
into the soil.
 It controls opening and closing of stomata
during transpiration through its regulation of
the turgidity of guard cells.

 Movement of plants and plant parts (e.g.,

movement of leaflets of the sensitive plant
Mimosa pudica) are controlled by cell turgor
which is induced by osmosis.
Thanks……….