AOBPreview originally published online on October 7, 2007
Annals of Botany 2008 101(8):1255-1265; doi:10.1093/aob/mcm235
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A System for Modelling Cell–Cell Interactions during Plant Morphogenesis
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK
* For correspondence. E-mail lxd20{at}cam.ac.uk
Received: 5 March 2007 Returned for revision: 9 May 2007 Accepted: 11 July 2007 Published electronically: 7 October 2007
Background and aims: During the development of multicellular organisms, cells are capable of interacting with each other through a range of biological and physical mechanisms. A description of these networks of cell–cell interactions is essential for an understanding of how cellular activity is co-ordinated in regionalized functional entities such as tissues or organs. The difficulty of experimenting on living tissues has been a major limitation to describing such systems, and computer modelling appears particularly helpful to characterize the behaviour of multicellular systems. The experimental difficulties inherent to the multitude of parallel interactions that underlie cellular morphogenesis have led to the need for computer models.
Methods: A new generic model of plant cellular morphogenesis is described that expresses interactions amongst cellular entities explicitly: the plant is described as a multi-scale structure, and interactions between distinct entities is established through a topological neighbourhood. Tissues are represented as 2D biphasic systems where the cell wall responds to turgor pressure through a viscous yielding of the cell wall.
Key Results: This principle was used in the development of the CellModeller software, a generic tool dedicated to the analysis and modelling of plant morphogenesis. The system was applied to three contrasting study cases illustrating genetic, hormonal and mechanical factors involved in plant morphogenesis.
Conclusions: Plant morphogenesis is fundamentally a cellular process and the CellModeller software, through its underlying generic model, provides an advanced research tool to analyse coupled physical and biological morphogenetic mechanisms.
Key words: Pattern formation, dynamic model, CellModeller, multicellular systems, morphogenesis, cell–cell interaction
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
Related articles in Ann Bot:
- ContentSnapshots
Ann Bot 2008 101: NP.[Extract] [Full Text]
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  F. Corson, O. Hamant, S. Bohn, J. Traas, A. Boudaoud, and Y. Couder From the Cover: Turning a plant tissue into a living cell froth through isotropic growth PNAS, May 26, 2009; 106(21): 8453 - 8458. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 E. M. Bayer, R. S. Smith, T. Mandel, N. Nakayama, M. Sauer, P. Prusinkiewicz, and C. Kuhlemeier Integration of transport-based models for phyllotaxis and midvein formation Genes & Dev., February 1, 2009; 23(3): 373 - 384. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 T. Fourcaud, X. Zhang, A. Stokes, H. Lambers, and C. Korner Plant Growth Modelling and Applications: The Increasing Importance of Plant Architecture in Growth Models Ann. Bot., May 1, 2008; 101(8): 1053 - 1063. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|