Modeling the emergence of polarity patterns for the intercellular transport of auxin in plants
Abstract
The hormone auxin is actively transported throughout plants via protein machineries including the dedicated transporter known as PIN. The associated transport is ordered with nearby cells driving auxin flux in similar directions. Here we provide a model of both the auxin transport and of the dynamics of cellular polarisation based on flux sensing. Our main findings are: (i) spontaneous intracellular PIN polarisation arises if PIN recycling dynamics are sufficiently non-linear, (ii) there is no need for an auxin concentration gradient, and (iii) ordered multi-cellular patterns of PIN polarisation are favored by molecular noise.
Used in syntheses
Questions this source addresses
- How can chemicals that react and spread create a pattern?
- How do cells know where they are in a growing body?
- How does a living thing know what shape to grow into?
- How does auxin shape a growing plant?
- How does flux sensing, rather than concentration sensing, explain how cells detect and respond to auxin transport?
- What causes individual plant cells to spontaneously polarize their PIN transporters without an external directional cue?
- What role does molecular noise play in helping cells establish coordinated PIN polarization across a tissue?
- Why can ordered, tissue-wide auxin transport patterns emerge without a pre-existing auxin concentration gradient?