Process
Photosynthesis
Using light energy to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar, releasing oxygen.
Plant Biology
How plants capture light, move water and grow.
Plant biology is the study of plants: how they make food from sunlight, take up water through their roots and grow.
Plant biologists study photosynthesis, transport in xylem and phloem, stomata, hormones and the partnerships plants form with fungi and bacteria.
Topics include carbon fixation by rubisco and C4 pathways, the physics of sap transport, hormone signaling, and plant genomes such as that of Arabidopsis.
Big questions
- How does a plant lift water to its top leaves?
- What limits how fast plants grow?
- How do plants partner with fungi and bacteria?
Key ideas
Open any idea in the knowledge graph to see what it connects to, here and in other fields.
Structure
Chloroplasts
Capture light energy to make sugar by photosynthesis.
Structure
Xylem and phloem
Xylem carries water up from the roots; phloem carries sugars from leaves to where they are used or stored.
Structure
Stomata
Adjustable leaf pores that let carbon dioxide in and water vapor out.
Molecule
Plant hormones
Chemical signals such as auxin and abscisic acid that coordinate plant growth and responses.
Process
Mycorrhizae
Partnerships between plant roots and fungi. A 2018 review estimated that only about 8 percent of vascular plant species have none.
Process
Nitrogen fixation
Some bacteria turn nitrogen gas into forms plants can use. Legumes house them in root nodules.
Process
Pollination
Moving pollen between flowers, often by animals, so plants can make seeds.
Process
C4 photosynthesis
A carbon-concentrating form of photosynthesis that evolved many separate times, in plants such as maize.
Molecule
Rubisco
The enzyme that captures carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, often called the most abundant protein on Earth.
Also in Plant Biology
Explore it in the labs
Interactive explorer
Follow water, sugar and gases through a plant, test what limits photosynthesis, and match hormones to their effects.
- Plant Biology
- Biochemistry
- Ecology
Interactive explorer
Tour an animal or plant cell: what each organelle does, the molecules inside it, related conditions and current research.
- Cell Biology
- Molecular Biology
- Biochemistry
Interactive explorer
Compare bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and viruses side by side, and model how a bacterial culture grows.
- Microbiology
- Evolution
- Immunology
Current research
Search published papers and preprints in Plant Biology, with clear labels for reviews, primary research, clinical trials and preprints.
Search papers in Plant BiologySources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Biology 2e (opens the original in a new tab)
OpenStax (2018). OpenStax, Rice University.
Free introductory college textbook.
TextbookEducationalLicence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (linked, not reused)
Analysis of the genome sequence of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana (opens the original in a new tab)
Arabidopsis Genome Initiative (2000). Nature 408:796-815.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchPrimary production of the biosphere: integrating terrestrial and oceanic components (opens the original in a new tab)
Field CB, Behrenfeld MJ, Randerson JT, et al. (1998). Science 281:237-240.
Global net primary production of about 105 petagrams of carbon per year, split roughly evenly between land and ocean.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchThe path of carbon in photosynthesis (opens the original in a new tab)
Bassham JA, Benson AA, Calvin M (1950). Journal of Biological Chemistry 185:781-787.
Historical paperPrimary researchEndosymbiosis and eukaryotic cell evolution (opens the original in a new tab)
Archibald JM (2015). Current Biology 25:R911-R921.
Peer-reviewedReviewThe global mass and average rate of rubisco (opens the original in a new tab)
Bar-On YM, Milo R (2019). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116:4738-4743.
Estimates about 0.7 gigatonnes of rubisco on Earth, mostly in land plant leaves.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchThe cohesion-tension theory of sap ascent: current controversies (opens the original in a new tab)
Tyree MT (1997). Journal of Experimental Botany 48:1753-1765.
Peer-reviewedReviewTesting the Münch hypothesis of long distance phloem transport in plants (opens the original in a new tab)
Knoblauch M, Knoblauch J, Mullendore DL, et al. (2016). eLife 5:e15341.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchThe role of stomata in sensing and driving environmental change (opens the original in a new tab)
Hetherington AM, Woodward FI (2003). Nature 424:901-908.
Peer-reviewedReviewRecent advances and emerging trends in plant hormone signalling (opens the original in a new tab)
Santner A, Estelle M (2009). Nature 459:1071-1078.
Peer-reviewedReviewEvolutionary history of mycorrhizal symbioses and global host plant diversity (opens the original in a new tab)
Brundrett MC, Tedersoo L (2018). New Phytologist 220:1108-1115.
Peer-reviewedReviewMycorrhizal ecology and evolution: the past, the present, and the future (opens the original in a new tab)
van der Heijden MGA, Martin FM, Selosse MA, et al. (2015). New Phytologist 205:1406-1423.
Peer-reviewedReviewThe rules of engagement in the legume-rhizobial symbiosis (opens the original in a new tab)
Oldroyd GE, Murray JD, Poole PS, et al. (2011). Annual Review of Genetics 45:119-144.
Editorially reviewedReviewWhat is Pollination? (opens the original in a new tab)
USDA Forest Service. fs.usda.gov. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducationalThe evolution of C4 photosynthesis (opens the original in a new tab)
Sage RF (2004). New Phytologist 161:341-370.
Peer-reviewedReview