AQA Biology 4.4.1.3
Uses of glucose
A plant makes glucose in its leaves. Send it down each of its five routes, and find out why it is stored as starch.
Combined Science · Foundation tier
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Inside a potato.
A potato is packed with food the plant made in its leaves and sent underground to store.
If you had to guess, is that food stored as sugar, or as starch?
Where the glucose goes
Five uses.
The glucose made in photosynthesis is used in five ways. Send glucose down each route. One route needs something from the soil first.
Pick a use.
Why starch?
Store it so it stays put.
Glucose dissolves; starch doesn’t. Compare a storage cell full of each.
Glucose is soluble. A cell full of dissolved glucose would draw water in by osmosis.
Starch is stored in potato tubers, parsnip roots, seeds such as wheat and rice, and leaves. Sugars move round the plant dissolved, in the phloem: in Translocation.
Think again · cellulose
“Cellulose is an energy store.”
Your call
ChooseWhat is cellulose used for in a plant?
Sort
Stored, built or respired?
Place each use.
Tap a card, then tap the box it belongs in. Tap a placed card to take it back.
Command words in this lesson
- Describe
- Each use of glucose and its purpose.
- Explain
- Why starch is the store, link by link.
- Suggest
- Why a plant can’t make a molecule.
Key fact
Glucose is used for respiration, starch, fats and oils, cellulose and amino acids. Proteins also need nitrate ions from the soil.
Key note · AQA 4.4.1.3
Uses of glucose
- Glucose is used for respiration.
- It is converted into insoluble starch, and into fats and oils, for storage.
- It is used to produce cellulose, which strengthens the cell wall.
- It is used to produce amino acids for protein synthesis; plants also need nitrate ions from the soil.
- Starch is stored, not glucose, because it is insoluble and doesn’t affect osmosis.
Photograph this card. Tomorrow, cover it and say each line first.
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Not sure why starch, not glucose?
Drawings are schematic.