Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 22, 2025

Imaging Spatial Reorganization of a MAPK Signaling Pathway Using the Tobacco Transient Expression System
Published on: March 20, 2016
Stochasticity and the limits of molecular signaling in plant development
1Department of Plant Biology, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United States.
Abstract:
Understanding plant development is in part a theoretical endeavor that can only succeed if it is based upon a correctly contrived axiomatic framework. Here I revisit some of the basic assumptions that frame our understanding of plant development and suggest that we consider an alternative informational ecosystem that more faithfully reflects the physical and architectural realities of plant tissue and organ growth. I discuss molecular signaling as a stochastic process and propose that the iterative and architectural nature of plant growth is more usefully represented by deterministic models based upon structural, surficial, and stress-mechanical information networks that come into play at the trans-cellular level.
Related Concept Videos
Cell Signaling in Plants
Diversity in Cell Signaling Responses
Graded and Abrupt Responses
Some signaling systems generate...
Short-distance Transport of Resources
Interactions Between Signaling Pathways
Convergence and divergence, and cross-talk between signaling pathways
Two distinct signaling pathways can converge on a single functional unit, which may either be a single protein or a complex of proteins. The response is either functionally distinct or synergistic between the two pathways but different from the response...
Regulation of Transpiration by Stomata
Responses to Heat and Cold Stress

