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Water transport in plants obeys Murray's law

Author

Listed:
  • Katherine A. McCulloh

    (University of Utah)

  • John S. Sperry

    (University of Utah)

  • Frederick R. Adler

    (University of Utah)

Abstract

The optimal water transport system in plants should maximize hydraulic conductance (which is proportional to photosynthesis1,2,3,4,5) for a given investment in transport tissue. To investigate how this optimum may be achieved, we have performed computer simulations of the hydraulic conductance of a branched transport system. Here we show that the optimum network is not achieved by the commonly assumed pipe model of plant form6,7,8, or its antecedent, da Vinci's rule9,10. In these representations, the number and area of xylem conduits is constant at every branch rank. Instead, the optimum network has a minimum number of wide conduits at the base that feed an increasing number of narrower conduits distally. This follows from the application of Murray's law, which predicts the optimal taper of blood vessels in the cardiovascular system11. Our measurements of plant xylem indicate that these conduits conform to the Murray's law optimum as long as they do not function additionally as supports for the plant body.

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine A. McCulloh & John S. Sperry & Frederick R. Adler, 2003. "Water transport in plants obeys Murray's law," Nature, Nature, vol. 421(6926), pages 939-942, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:421:y:2003:i:6926:d:10.1038_nature01444
    DOI: 10.1038/nature01444
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    Cited by:

    1. Kannan Badri Narayanan & Rakesh Bhaskar & Hyunjin Kim & Sung Soo Han, 2023. "In Vitro Cytocompatibility Assessment of Novel 3D Chitin/Glucan- and Cellulose-Based Decellularized Scaffolds for Skin Tissue Engineering," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-16, November.
    2. Binghan Zhou & Qian Cheng & Zhuo Chen & Zesheng Chen & Dongfang Liang & Eric Anthony Munro & Guolin Yun & Yoshiki Kawai & Jinrui Chen & Tynee Bhowmick & Karthick Kannan Padmanathan & Luigi Giuseppe Oc, 2024. "Universal Murray’s law for optimised fluid transport in synthetic structures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Siddharth Patwardhan & Marc Barthelemy & Şirag Erkol & Santo Fortunato & Filippo Radicchi, 2024. "Symmetry breaking in optimal transport networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

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