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: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=662688
• 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.

发育生物学的一个核心问题是生物如何获得其形式。计算模型在解决这个问题方面起着重要作用。它们的相关性部分归因于许多发展过程的自组织特征，这在不使用模型的情况下很难分析和理解。 **迄今为止构建的植物开发模型可以大致分为两个类别。微观模型旨在解释控制生长的形态发电性物质的时空模式。这些模型在单个细胞中发生的分子过程的尺度上运行。宏观模型将局部生长与整个植物的全球形式联系起来，并在大型植物成分的水平上运行。 例子包括分支系统（顶点和节间）的元素以及叶子，鲜花和水果等器官。原则上，微观和宏观模型是互补的，但是它们的对应关系很脆弱，在理解发展方面存在差距。 在解决这一差距时，我建议设计一个概念性和数学框架，建模方法和软件，用于在中间，介质级别建模植物开发。该水平的特征在于比单个细胞大的空间尺度，但比整个植物都小，高度不均匀的生长导致大小和形状的根本变化，模式和生长之间的反馈以及新的结构元素的出现，包括脉管系统的区分，通过自组织模式。 **我建议使用两条方法来利用介观发育的复杂性，在这种方法中，分子和细胞水平过程的必要图案特性被蒸馏成几何本构规则，并以这些规则的规则来表征大规模模式，形式和结构的发展。理论概念和计算方法将利用计算机科学，数学和物理学的思想，并将应用于植根于实验数据中的生物学问题。 案例研究将包括复合叶子，鲜花和花序的发展。预计该结果将为开发植物生物学和计算机图形中植物的实际建模提供统一的观点。