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Towards a framework for collective behavior in growth-driven systems, based on plant-inspired allotropic pairwise
Renaud Bastien1, Amir Porat, Yasmine Meroz
1Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany. These two authors contributed equally.
Bioinspiration & Biomimetics
|July 12, 2019
Summary
Sessile organisms move through growth. This study introduces point tropism and allotropism, exploring how plant organs respond to signals and interact, revealing complex behaviors and transitions in growth-driven systems.
Area of Science:
- Theoretical biology
- Mathematical modeling
- Plant sciences
Background:
- Sessile organisms rely on growth for movement, forming complex structures like axons and root systems.
- Decentralized growth dynamics in sessile organisms share similarities with collective behavior in motile organisms.
- Tropic responses in plants offer a framework for understanding growth-driven movement.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce novel concepts: point tropism and allotropism.
- Investigate growth-driven responses of plant organs to external signals and inter-organ interactions.
- Develop a theoretical framework for understanding interacting growth-driven systems.
Main Methods:
- Analytical and numerical investigation of 2D dynamics.
- Modeling single organ responses to point signals.
- Simulating interactions between pairs of organs via allotropism.
Main Results:
- Identified a rich state-space for interacting plant organs with local sensing.
- Characterized distinct states and sharp transitions between them.
- Demonstrated dependence of the state-space on initial conditions.
Conclusions:
- Point tropism and allotropism provide new insights into growth-driven biological systems.
- The study lays groundwork for a theoretical framework of interacting sessile organisms.
- Understanding these dynamics is crucial for fields ranging from developmental biology to ecology.
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