Virtual phyllotaxis and real plant model cases
Beata Zagórska-Marek A B and Marcin Szpak AA Institute of Plant Biology, Wrocław University, 50-328 Wrocław, Kanonia Street 6/8, Poland.
B Corresponding author. Email: beata@biol.uni.wroc.pl
This paper originates from a presentation at the 5th International Workshop on Functional–Structural Plant Models, Napier, New Zealand, November 2007.
Functional Plant Biology 35(10) 1025-1033 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP08076
Submitted: 14 March 2008 Accepted: 4 August 2008 Published: 11 November 2008
Abstract
Phyllotactic pattern results from genetic control of lateral primordia size (physiological or physical) relative to the size of organogenic lateral surface of shoot apical meristem (SAM). In order to understand the diversity of patterns and ontogenetic transitions of phyllotaxis we have developed a geometric model allowing changes of the above proportion in a computer simulation of SAM’s growth. The results of serial simulations confirmed that many phyllotactic patterns (including most esoteric ones) and ontogenetic transitions known from real plant model cases can be easily obtained in silico. Properties of virtual patterns often deviated from those of ideal mathematical lattices but closely resembled those of the natural ones. This proved the assumptions of the model, such as initiation in the first available space or ontogenetic changes in primordia size, to be quite realistic. Confrontation of simulation results with some sequences of real phyllotactic patterns (case study Verbena) questions the autonomy of SAM in its organogenic activity and suggests the involvement of unknown signal positioning primordia in a non-random manner in the first available space.
Additional keywords: Magnolia, ontogenetic transitions, pattern formation, SAM, Verbena.
Acknowledgements
B. Zagórska-Marek thanks her colleagues from the Plant Development Research Group at the Institute of Plant Biology of Wrocław University for their interest in phyllotaxis and great help in counting and gaining control over thousands of plant spirals, especially to Ms Magdalena Turzańska for beautiful microtechnics performed on shoot apical meristems. Thanks are also due to computer programmers: Dr Radosław Karwowski and Szymon Stoma for their efforts to improve the first, unfinished version of the computer program, meant to allow simulations of phyllotactic transitions. It was written in 1995 by Dr Johannes Battjes during our cooperation in Professor Prusinkiewicz’s Laboratory at the University of Calgary. This research was financed in part by a grant from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Grant no. N303 096834).
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