Scrabble?! APOPLAST

Definitions of APOPLAST in various dictionaries:

Inside a plant, the apoplast is the space outside the plasma membrane within which material can diffuse freely. It is interrupted by the Casparian strip in roots, by air spaces between plant cells and by the plant cuticle. Structurally, the apoplast is formed by the continuum of cell walls of adjacent cells as well as the extracellular spaces, forming a tissue level compartment comparable to the symplast. The apoplastic route facilitates the transport of water and solutes across a tissue or organ. This process is known as apoplastic transport. The apoplast is important for all the plant's interaction with its environment. The main carbon source (carbon dioxide) needs to be solubilized in the apoplast before it diffuses through the plasma membrane into the cell's cytoplasm (symplast) and is used by the chloroplasts during photosynthesis. In the roots, ions diffuse into the apoplast of the epidermis before diffusing into the symplast, or in some cases being taken up by specific ion chann