Over the last decades, the development of plant physiology was associa
ted with the investigation of primary physicochemical mechanisms (from
the general to the specific). At present, it has become necessary to
integrate the accumulated knowledge in order to describe plant life ac
tivity in the soil-plant-atmosphere system (from the specific to the g
eneral). This approach, from the root hair to the root of an intact tr
anspiring plant, was demonstrated in investigations conducted in my la
boratory. Phytomonitoring was shown to be an appropriate integrative m
ethod for studying the life activity of the intact plant. Regulating p
lasmodesma conductance appears to be the most promising solution to th
e problem of transport functions.