Plant Tissue Culture & Genetics

3.Plant Physiology

Plant physiology is the study of all fundamental chemical and physical process occurring in plant. These are the sub discipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), crop physiology, plant cell biology, biophysics and plant stress physiology. Plant physiology seeks to understand all the aspects and manifestations of plant life. In agreement with the major characteristics of organisms, it is usually divided into three major parts:  the physiology of nutrition and metabolism, which deals with the uptake, transformations, and release of materials, and also their movement within and between the cells and organs of the plant;  the physiology of growth, development, and reproduction, which is concerned with these aspects of plant function; and  environmental physiology, which seeks to understand the manifold responses of plants to the environment. The part of environmental physiology which deals with effects of and adaptations to adverse conditions—and which is receiving increasing attention—is called stress physiology.