We can move from place to place to find the nutrients we need. But a plant cannot change its location (it is sessile), and so must obtain nutrients from its immediate environment. With the exception of carbon and oxygen, a plant’s supply of nutrients is strictly local, and a plant may use up the water and mineral nutrients in its local environment as it grows. How does a plant cope with the problem of scarce nutrient supplies?
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Plants alter their direction of root growth, depending on the availability of dissolved nutrients in the soil.
Plant cells use gene regulation to control the numbers of membrane transporters and enzyme regulation to control the rate of incorporation of nutrients into complex biomolecules.