How plants use glucose

For respiration
1. Plants make glucose in their leaves
2. They use some of the glucose for respiration.
3. This releases energy which enables them to convert the rest of the glucose into various other useful substances.
  1. Which they can use to build new cells and grow.
4. To produce some of these substances they also need to gather a few minerals from the soil.
Making cell walls
1. Glucose is converted into cellulose for making strong cell walls, especially in a rapid growing plant like bamboo.
Making proteins
1. Glucose is combined with nitrate ions (absorbed from the soil) to make amino acids which are then made into proteins.
Stored in seeds
1. Glucose is turned into lipids (fats and oils) for storing in seeds.
2. Sunflower seeds, for example contain a lot of oil - we get cooking oil and margarine from them.
3. Seeds also store starch.
Stored as starch
1. Glucose is turned into starch and stored in roots, stems and leaves, ready for use when photosynthesis isn't happening, like the winter.
2. Starch is insoluble which makes it much better for storing than glucose. A cell with lots of glucose in it would draw in loads of water and swell up.

Resource summary

	Created by jessica-gollop about 11 years ago