title: Strategies for cell shape control in tip-growing cells.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite the large diversity in biological cell morphology, the processes that specify and control cell shape are not yet fully understood. Here we study the shape of tip-growing, walled cells, which have evolved a polar mode of cell morphogenesis leading to characteristic filamentous cell morphologies that extend only apically.
  
  
  METHODS
  We identified the relevant parameters for the control of cell shape and derived scaling laws based on mass conservation and force balance that connect these parameters to the resulting geometrical phenotypes. These laws provide quantitative testable relations linking morphological phenotypes to the biophysical processes involved in establishing and modulating cell shape in tip-growing, walled cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By comparing our theoretical results to the observed morphological variation within and across species, we found that tip-growing cells from plant and fungal species share a common strategy to shape the cell, whereas oomycete species have evolved a different mechanism.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ocampas@seas.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Otger
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Campàs
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rojas
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dumais
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mahadevan
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D048430:Cell Shape; D005658:Fungi / Q000166:cytology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010802:Phylogeny; D059828:Plant Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity