title: Analysing growth and development of plants jointly using developmental growth stages.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Plant growth, the increase of organ dimensions over time, and development, the change in plant structure, are often studied as two separate processes. However, there is structural and functional evidence that these two processes are strongly related. The aim of this study was to investigate the co-ordination between growth and development using mango trees, which have well-defined developmental stages.
  
  
  METHODS
  Developmental stages, determined in an expert way, and organ sizes, determined from objective measurements, were collected during the vegetative growth and flowering phases of two cultivars of mango, Mangifera indica. For a given cultivar and growth unit type (either vegetative or flowering), a multistage model based on absolute growth rate sequences deduced from the measurements was first built, and then growth stages deduced from the model were compared with developmental stages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Strong matches were obtained between growth stages and developmental stages, leading to a consistent definition of integrative developmental growth stages. The growth stages highlighted growth asynchronisms between two topologically connected organs, namely the vegetative axis and its leaves.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Integrative developmental growth stages emphasize that developmental stages are closely related to organ growth rates. The results are discussed in terms of the possible physiological processes underlying these stages, including plant hydraulics, biomechanics and carbohydrate partitioning.
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UPR HortSys, 97455 Saint-Pierre Cedex, Réunion Island, France, INRA, UMR AGAP, 34098 Montpellier, France and CIRAD, UMR AGAP and Inria, Virtual Plants, 34095 Montpellier, France CIRAD, UPR HortSys, 97455 Saint-Pierre Cedex, Réunion Island, France, INRA, UMR AGAP, 34098 Montpellier, France and CIRAD, UMR AGAP and Inria, Virtual Plants, 34095 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Anaëlle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dambreville
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UPR HortSys, 97455 Saint-Pierre Cedex, Réunion Island, France, INRA, UMR AGAP, 34098 Montpellier, France and CIRAD, UMR AGAP and Inria, Virtual Plants, 34095 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Pierre-Éric
authors.initials: PÉ
authors.lastname: Lauri
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UPR HortSys, 97455 Saint-Pierre Cedex, Réunion Island, France, INRA, UMR AGAP, 34098 Montpellier, France and CIRAD, UMR AGAP and Inria, Virtual Plants, 34095 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Normand
authors.affiliation: CIRAD, UPR HortSys, 97455 Saint-Pierre Cedex, Réunion Island, France, INRA, UMR AGAP, 34098 Montpellier, France and CIRAD, UMR AGAP and Inria, Virtual Plants, 34095 Montpellier, France yann.guedon@cirad.fr.
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guédon
mesh_terms: D035264:Flowers / Q000254:growth & development*; D031022:Mangifera / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D008954:Models, Biological; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000254:growth & development*
keywords: AGR; Absolute growth rate; Mangifera indica; developmental stage; growth asynchronism; growth stage; growth unit; hidden semi-Markov chain; inflorescence; mango; plant development; plant growth; segmentation model; thermal time