Coupling water fluxes with cell wall mechanics in a multicellular model of plant development

Ibrahim Cheddadi (1) , Michel Génard (2) , Nadia Bertin (2) , Christophe Godin (3)

1 TIMC-IMAG - Techniques de l'Ingénierie Médicale et de la Complexité - Informatique, Mathématiques et Applications, Grenoble - UMR 5525
2 PSH - Unité de recherche Plantes et Systèmes de Culture Horticoles
3 RDP - Reproduction et développement des plantes

The growth of plant organs is a complex process powered by osmosis that attracts water inside the cells; this influx induces simultaneously an elastic extension of the walls and pressure in the cells, called turgor pressure; above a threshold, the walls yield and the cells grow. Based on Lockhart’s seminal work, various models of plant morphogenesis have been proposed, either for single cells, or focusing on the wall mechanical properties. However, the synergistic coupling of fluxes and wall mechanics has not yet been fully addressed in a multicellular model. This work lays the foundations of such a model, by simplifying as much as possible each process and putting emphasis on the coupling itself. Its emergent properties are rich and can help to understand plant morphogenesis. In particular, we show that the model can display a new type of lateral inhibitory mechanism that amplifies growth heterogeneities due e.g to cell wall loosening.

Mots clés: multicellular model; cell mechanics; cell expansion; plant growth; osmotic flow; mechanical characteristic; cell propagation

Mots clés: croissance végétale; osmose; pression de turgescence; morphogénèse végétale; propriété mécanique; flux d'eau; couplage de flux; multiplication cellulaire

Domaines: Biologie végétale

Ibrahim Cheddadi, Michel Génard, Nadia Bertin, Christophe Godin. Coupling water fluxes with cell wall mechanics in a multicellular model of plant development. PLoS Computational Biology, 2019, 15 (6), ⟨10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007121⟩. ⟨hal-02196768v1⟩