title: The shade avoidance syndrome: a non-Markovian stochastic growth model.
abstract: Plants at high population density compete for light, showing a series of physiological responses known as the shade avoidance syndrome. These responses are controlled by the synthesis of the hormone auxin, which is regulated by two signals, an environmental one and an internal one. Considering that the auxin signal induces plant growth after a time lag, this work shows that plant growth can be modelled in terms of an energy-like function extremization, provided that the Markov property is not applied. The simulated height distributions are bimodal and right skewed, as in real community of plants. In the case of isolated plants, theoretical growth dynamics and speed correctly fit Arabidopsis thaliana experimental data reported in literature. Moreover, the growth dynamics of this model is shown to be consistent with the biomass production function of an independent model. These results suggest that memory effects play a non-negligible role in plant growth processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncological Sciences and Division of Vascular Biology, Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment, University of Torino, Str Prov 142 Km 3.95, 10060 Candiolo, Italy. andrea.veglio@unito.it
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Veglio
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects; D000465:Algorithms; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D017753:Ecosystem; D007210:Indoleacetic Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D008027:Light; D008390:Markov Chains; D008954:Models, Biological; D018524:Phototropism / Q000502:physiology*; D063245:Plant Development; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects
chemical_list: D007210:Indoleacetic Acids