Computational Models of Auxin-Driven Development
Auxin plays a key regulatory role in plant development. According to our current understanding, the morphogenetic action of auxin relies on its polar transport and the feedback between this transport and the localization of auxin transporters. Computation
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Computational Models of Auxin-Driven Development Adam Runions, Richard S. Smith, and Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz
Abstract Auxin plays a key regulatory role in plant development. According to our current understanding, the morphogenetic action of auxin relies on its polar transport and the feedback between this transport and the localization of auxin transporters. Computational models complement experimental data in studies of auxin-driven development: they help understand the self-organizing aspects of auxin patterning, reveal whether hypothetical mechanisms inferred from experiments are plausible, and highlight differences between competing hypotheses that can be used to direct further experimental studies. In this chapter we present the state of the art in the computational modeling of auxin patterning and auxin-driven development in plants. We first discuss the methodological foundations of model construction: computational representations of tissues, cells, and molecular components of the studied systems. On this basis, we present mathematical models of auxin transport and the essential properties of pattern formation mechanisms involving auxin. We then review some of the key areas that have been investigated with the use of models: phyllotactic patterning of lateral organs in the shoot apical meristem, determination of leaf shape and vasculature, long-distance signaling and apical control of development, and auxin patterning in the root. The chapter is concluded with a brief review of current open problems.
A. Runions • P. Prusinkiewicz (*) Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada e-mail: [email protected] R.S. Smith Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany E. Zazˇ´ımalova´ et al. (eds.), Auxin and Its Role in Plant Development, DOI 10.1007/978-3-7091-1526-8_15, © Springer-Verlag Wien 2014
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1 Introduction A key objective of developmental biology is to understand how molecular processes drive the development of tissues, organs, and entire organisms. In plants, the growth regulator auxin plays a commanding role on which many developmental processes depend. The morphogenetic role of auxin begins in the embryo, where its dynamic, differential distribution establishes the shoot–root polarity (Weijers and Ju¨rgens 2005 ). In post-embryonic development, diverse patterning, signaling, and regulatory functions of auxin are summarized by the reverse/inverse fountain model (Benkova´ et al. 2003) (Fig. 15.1). According to this model, auxin is produced in the vicinity of the shoot apical meristem and is transported in the epidermis towards the peripheral zone of the apex. There it accumulates in emergent convergence points, which determine the phyllotactic pattern of the incipient plant organs: leaves, flowers, and new branches (Reinhardt et al. 2003; Jo¨nsson et al. 2006; Smith et al. 2006a). As a leaf grows and becomes flat, further convergence points appear at the leaf margin (S
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