Universality of phloem transport in seed plants.

Since Münch in the 1920s proposed that sugar transport in the phloem vascular system is driven by osmotic pressure gradients, his hypothesis has been strongly supported by evidence from herbaceous angiosperms. Experimental constraints made it difficult to test this proposal in large trees, where the distance between source and sink might prove incompatible with the hypothesis. Recently, the theoretical optimization of the Münch mechanism was shown to lead to surprisingly simple predictions for the dimensions of the phloem sieve elements in relation to that of fast growing angiosperms.

Osmotically driven flows in microchannels separated by a semipermeable membrane.

We have fabricated lab-on-a-chip systems with microchannels separated by integrated membranes allowing for osmotically driven microflows. We have investigated these flows experimentally by studying the dynamics and structure of the front of a sugar solution travelling in 200 microm wide and 50-200 microm deep microchannels. We find that the sugar front travels at a constant speed, and that this speed is proportional to the concentration of the sugar solution and inversely proportional to the depth of the channel.