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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 33: Active cell and tissue mechanics (focus session) I
BP 33.7: Talk
Thursday, April 3, 2014, 11:45–12:00, HÜL 386
The role of mechanics in leaf primary vein morphogenesis — •Jonathan Edward Dawson1, Irina Kneuper2, William Teale2, Klause Palme2, Franck Ditengou2, and Eleni Katifori1 — 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany — 2Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Institute of Biology, Freiburg, Germany
The veins of plant leaves exhibit a large variety of morphological patterns. Growth and development of leaf veins is a highly regulated process. Mechanisms that regulate the formation of veins and vascular architecture are largely unknown. In addition to genetic regulation, cell mechanics must also play an important role in these processes. However, to what extent cell mechanics and the interplay between mechanics and biochemistry plays a role in vascular patterning is not well understood. Using a cell based model in which cells are polygons, here we describe the vascular development in early stages of growing leaf primordia. Here we investigate the formation of leaf primary vein. We simulate tissue growth driven by inter-cellular diffusion of the plant hormone auxin, from auxin synthesizing cells. We show that dynamic modulation of the cell mechanical properties based on cell auxin concentration can reproduce realistic mid vein as observed in growing leaf primordia. We further tested our model by comparing with perturbation experiments, in which the inter-cellular auxin transport as well as auxin biosynthesis in leaf primordia is affected.