A refined model for the phloem translocation of xenobiotics in living plants is presented. The model accounts for the translocation of a xenobiotic that can exist in several ionic forms in terms of the permeabilities of these forms and the fractions of the forms that exist both within the sieve tubes and in the surrounding apoplast. Predictions of the model are quite sensitive to the description of the membranes used in the model, with optimum log Kow's and pKa's becoming more positive as the membranes become less permeable. The literature generally supports the predictions of the model. When applied to patented chemical hybridizing agents, the model predicts that most are phloem-mobile. This prediction strongly suggests that the chemical hybridizing agents exert their pollen-suppressing activity by direct effects on pollen and/or the surrounding maternal tissues. With low transpiration rates and the discontinuity of xylem in many reproductive tissues, phloem translocatability may be an essential requirement for the whole plant activity of many chemical hybridizing agents.

We have developed a mathematical model for the plant vascular system that enables the prediction of a compound's phloem systemicity as a function of its partition coefficients and acid dissociation constants. The mathematical model can account for the sensitivity of systemicity to plant parameters such as plant size and pH of the phloem sap. This paper reviews this model and demonstrates how it accounts for the phloem systemic properties of most herbicides as well as that of many endogenous substances such as plant hormones. The model also can be used to design phloem systemic pesticides as illustrated for a pronematicide that successfully controls nematodes when applied foliarly to transgenic tobacco plants capable of regenerating the parent nematicide in a root specific fashion.