{{unreferenced, date=August 2009
Vacuolar pathway:
Movement of water molecules in
plant cell
Plant cells are the cells present in green plants, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Their distinctive features include primary cell walls containing cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectin, the presence of plastids with the capabi ...
s via the
vacuoles located in the
cytoplasm
In cell biology, the cytoplasm is all of the material within a eukaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, except for the cell nucleus. The material inside the nucleus and contained within the nuclear membrane is termed the nucleoplasm. The ...
of the cell. The water molecules encounter high resistance however and as a result little flow usually occurs making this pathway insignificant, the
Apoplast pathway
Inside a plant, the apoplast can mean the space outside of cell membranes, where material can diffuse freely; that is, the extracellular spaces.
''Apoplast '' can also refer especially to the continuum of cell walls of adjacent cells; fluid and ma ...
and
Symplast pathway being the major pathways for movement of water in plants.
Water moves by osmosis across the vacuoles of the cells of the root system. The water moves down a concentration gradient from the soil solution to the xylem. The vacuolar pathway can also be considered a
symplast pathway.
Plant physiology