Breathing plants

Breathing is a universal property of all life that is on the Earth. The main property of the respiratory process is the absorption of oxygen, which interacts with organic compounds of living tissues to form water and carbon dioxide. The breathing of plants is accompanied by the absorption of water by the plant organism, and carbon dioxide is released into the surrounding space of the plant.

When breathing to release energy, the plant consumes organic matter, this process is the reverse of photosynthesis, when nutrients are accumulated in plant tissues . In the daytime, almost all plants produce oxygen, but in their cells there is a parallel respiratory process, but it proceeds less intensively. At night, the respiration of plants is more active, in contrast to photosynthesis, which, without access to light, ceases.

The act of breathing in plants

The plant cell and, accordingly, the whole plant as a whole, exists under the condition of a continuous influx of plastic substances and energy. The act of breathing, from the chemical point of view, consists of numerous links in a chain of associated oxidation-reduction reactions that occur between cellular organelles and are accompanied by the cleavage of substances. The energy released during the splitting is used to feed the plant.

External respiration of plants is a gas exchange between the plant organism itself and the environment through stomata of leaves or lenticles in tree trunks. The respiratory organs of the more highly organized plants are the leaves, tree trunks, stems, each of the algal cells.

Tissue Breathing

For cellular respiration in plants, special structures of cells - mitochondria - are responsible. These organelles of plant cells differ significantly from those of animals, which can be explained by the features of the process of plant life (lifestyle - attached, change in metabolism due to variable environmental conditions).

Therefore respiration of plants is accompanied by additional ways of oxidation of organic elements, at which alternative enzymes are produced. The breathing algorithm can be represented schematically as the oxidation reaction to water and carbon dioxide of sugars, due to the absorption of oxygen. This is accompanied by the release of heat, which can be clearly seen when flowers are blooming and seed germination. The breathing of plants is not only the supply of energy for the growth and further development of the plant. The role of breathing is very important. In the intermediate stages of the respiratory process, organic compounds are formed , which are then used in the metabolism, for example, pentose and organic acids. Breathing and photosynthesis, despite the fact that they are opposite in nature, are interrelated, since they serve as sources of such energy carriers as NADPH, ATP and metabolites in the cell. Water, which is released by breathing, in arid conditions, keeps the plant from dehydration. At the same time, if the process is too intense, excessive release of respiratory energy in the form of heat can cause loss of dry matter in a living cell.