A field theory for plant tropism

by Dr Alain Goriely

Tuesday 6 Apr 2021, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Stockholm

Nordita

 

The zoom link :

https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/622224375

Meeting ID: 622 224 375
 

 

To survive and to thrive, plants rely on their ability to sense multiple environmental signals, such as gravity or light, and respond to them by growing in a particular direction and changing their shape. Similarly, many cells respond to the stimuli generated by their environment to survive and achieve certain functions. This directed response, called tropism in plants and taxis in animals, relies on similar mechanisms. In these systems, a stimulus must be transduced down to the cellular level to create the physical deformations leading to shape changes. I will present a general mathematical theory of tropism based on the general theory of morphoelasticity and dimensional reduction. In this theory, a system integrate multiple stimuli and respond by tissue-level growth and remodelling, thus modifying the organ shape and position with respect to the stimuli. This feedback loop is dynamically updated to understand the response to individual stimuli or the complex behaviours generated by multiple stimuli such as canopy escape or pole wrapping for climbing plants.