Towards realistic continuum models of plant morphogenesis
This project will be supervised by Hadrien Oliveri at Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
Abstract:
Morphogenesis is the process by which organisms develop their shape, driven by genetic,
chemical, mechanical, and physical factors. These factors operate across multiple scales in a
complex system. To understand morphogenesis, models are essential, in particular,
mechanistic continuum theories that describe the physical behaviour of tissues on a
macroscopic scale. In this project, we explore mechanistic, mechanical approaches to
modelling developing plant tissues using the formalism of continuum mechanics. This
approach combines growth, elasticity, chemical factors and hydraulic effects in an integrated
framework. Specifically, we combine the theory of poroelasticity, which characterises the
mechanical behaviour of fluid-saturated solids, and morphoelasticity, a theory of biological
growth based on nonlinear solid mechanics. The goal is to build a comprehensive mechanistic
field theory of morphogenesis in plants, where genes affect the growth behaviour through
specific biophysical parameters.
Group homepage: https://www.mpipz.mpg.de/5630577/oliveri
Key publication: H. Oliveri and I. Cheddadi, Hydromechanical field theory of plant morphogenesis, arXiv, 2024. DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2409.02775. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2409.02775
water by relaxing cell walls.