Breathing is a universal property of all life on 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 respiration of plants is accompanied by the absorption of water by the plant organism, and the plants emit carbon dioxide into the surrounding space.
When breathing to release energy, the plant consumes organic matter, this process is the reverse of photosynthesis, when nutrients accumulate in plant tissues. In the daytime, almost all plants produce oxygen, however, in their cells, the respiratory process also takes place in parallel, but it proceeds less intensively. At night, plant respiration is more active, unlike photosynthesis, which, without access to light, stops.
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 a chemical point of view, consists of numerous links in the chain of related redoxreactions that occur between cell organelles and are accompanied by the breakdown of substances. The energy released during splitting is used to feed the plant.
External respiration of plants is the exchange of gases between the plant organism itself and the external environment through the stomata of leaves or lentils in tree trunks. The respiratory organs of more highly organized plants are leaves, tree trunks, stems, each of the cells of algae.
Tissue respiration
Special cell structures – mitochondria – are responsible for cellular respiration in plants. These organelles of plant cells are significantly different from those of animals, which can be explained by the peculiarities of the life process of plants (lifestyle - attached, change in metabolism due to changeable environmental conditions).
Therefore, plant respiration is accompanied by additional pathways for the oxidation of organic elements, in which alternative enzymes are produced. The breathing algorithm can be represented schematically as a reaction of oxidation to water and carbon dioxide of sugars, due to the absorption of oxygen. This is accompanied by the release of heat, which is clearly seen during the blooming of flowers and the germination of seeds. Plant respiration is not only the supply of energy for the growth and further development of the plant. The role of breathing is very important. At the intermediate stages of the respiratory process, organic compounds are formed, which are then used in metabolism, for example, pentose and organic acids. Respiration and photosynthesis, despite the fact thatare opposite in nature, interconnected, as they serve as sources of such energy carriers as NADP-H, ATP and metabolites in the cell. Water, which is released during respiration, in arid conditions keeps the plant from dehydration. At the same time, if the process is too intense, the excess release of respiratory energy in the form of heat can cause the loss of dry matter of a living cell.
