Cell enlargement and growth‐induced water potentials

Understanding the origin and role of growth‐induced water potentials helps to explain how cell enlargement is inhibited without a decrease in turgor when water is depleted in the soil or more rapidly lost by transpiration. In many cases, changes in growth‐induced water potentials probably cause the inhibition initially, but eventually the cell walls lose extensibility and specific proteins accumulate so that metabolic changes in the walls probably limit later growth.