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Science 26 January 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5504, pp. 571 - 572
DOI: 10.1126/science.291.5504.571A
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News of the Week

PLANT BIOLOGY:
Xylem May Direct Water Where It's Needed

Kathryn Brown

For decades, researchers have seen the xylem as a column of dead tissue, like a worn pipe, that sits inside plant stems passively supplying water to thirsty leaves. But in a paper published online today by Science (www.sciencexpress.org), a team of plant biologists reports that gels in key xylem membranes constantly shrink and swell. With this motion, the xylem actually adjusts the flow of mineral-rich water coursing toward leaves.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)