TRANSPORT FUNCTIONS OF THE ROOT IN INTACT PLANTS

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.