Mesoscopic models of plant development

植物发育的细观模型

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05325
• 负责人: Prusinkiewicz, Przemyslaw
• 金额: $ 6.7万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=588343
• 关键词: Mesoscopic; models; plant; development

A central question of developmental biology is how organisms acquire their form. Computational models play an important role in addressing this question. Their relevance is due, in part, to the self-organizing character of many developmental processes, which is difficult to analyze and understand without the use of models. Models of plant development constructed to date can be broadly divided into two classes. Microscopic models aim at explaining the spatio-temporal patterns of morphogenetically active substances that control growth. These models operate at the scale of molecular processes taking place in individual cells. Macroscopic models relate local growth to the global form of entire plants and operate at the level of large plant components. Examples include the elements of the branching system (apices and internodes) and organs such as leaves, flowers, and fruits. In principle, microscopic and macroscopic models are complementary, but their correspondence has been tenuous, creating a gap in the understanding of development. Addressing this gap, I propose to devise a conceptual and mathematical framework, modeling methods, and software for modeling plant development at the intermediate, mesoscopic level. This level is characterized by spatial scales larger than individual cells but smaller than whole plants, highly non-uniform growth resulting in radical changes in size and shape, feedback between patterning and growth, and the emergence of new structural elements, including differentiation of vasculature, through self-organizing patterning. I propose to harness the complexity of mesoscopic development using a two-prong approach, where the essential patterning properties of molecular and cell-level processes are distilled into geometric constitutive rules, and the development of large-scale patterns, forms and structures is characterized in terms of these rules. Theoretical notions and computational methods will draw on ideas from computer science, mathematics and physics, and will be applied to biological problems rooted in experimental data. Case studies will include the development of compound leaves, flowers and inflorescences. The results are expected to contribute a unifying perspective to developmental plant biology, and advance methods for realistic modelling of plants in computer graphics.

发育生物学的一个中心问题是生物体如何获得它们的形态。计算模型在解决这个问题上起着重要的作用。它们的相关性部分是由于许多发展过程的自组织特征，如果不使用模型，很难分析和理解。