Chapter 11
Transport in Plants
Chapter 12
Mineral Nutrition
Chapter 13
Photosynthesis in Higher
Plants
Chapter 14
Respiration in Plants
Chapter 15
Plant Growth and
Development
The description of structure and variation of living organisms over a
period of time, ended up as two, apparently irreconcilable perspectives
on biology. The two perspectives essentially rested on two levels of
organisation of life forms and phenomena. One described at organismic
and above level of organisation while the second described at cellular
and molecular level of organisation. The first resulted in ecology and
related disciplines. The second resulted in physiology and biochemistry.
Description of physiological processes, in flowering plants as an
example, is what is given in the chapters in this unit. The processes of
mineral nutrition of plants, photosynthesis, transport, respiration and
ultimately plant growth and development are described in molecular
terms but in the context of cellular activities and even at organism
level. Wherever appropriate, the relation of the physiological processes
to environment is also discussed.
MELVIN CALVIN born in Minnesota in April, 1911, received his
Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota. He served
as Professor of Chemistry at the University of California,
Berkeley.
Just after world war II, when the world was under shock
after the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings, and seeing the ill-
effects of radio-activity, Calvin and co-workers put radio-
activity to beneficial use. He along with J.A. Bassham studied
reactions in green plants forming sugar and other substances
from raw materials like carbon dioxide, water and minerals
by labelling the carbon dioxide with C14. Calvin proposed that
plants change light energy to chemical energy by transferring
an electron in an organised array of pigment molecules and
other substances. The mapping of the pathway of carbon
assimilation in photosynthesis earned him Nobel Prize in 1961.
The principles of photosynthesis as established by Calvin
are, at present, being used in studies on renewable resource
for energy and materials and basic studies in solar energy research.
