title: Thermodynamical journey in plant biology.
abstract: Nonequilibrium irreversible thermodynamics constitute a meaningful point of view suitable to explore life with a rich paradigm. This analytical framework can be used to span the gap from molecular processes to plant function and shows great promise to create a holistic description of life. Since living organisms dissipate energy, exchange entropy and matter with their environment, they can be assimilated to dissipative structures. This concept inherited from nonequilibrium thermodynamics has four properties which defines a scale independent framework suitable to provide a simpler and more comprehensive view of the highly complex plant biology. According to this approach, a biological function is modeled as a cascade of dissipative structures. Each dissipative structure, corresponds to a biological process, which is initiated by the amplification of a fluctuation. Evolution of the process leads to the breakage of the system symmetry and to the export of entropy. Exporting entropy to the surrounding environment corresponds to collecting information about it. Biological actors which break the symmetry of the system and which store information are by consequence, key actors on which experiments and data analysis focus most. This paper aims at illustrating properties of dissipative structure through familiar examples and thus initiating the dialogue between nonequilibrium thermodynamics and plant biology.
authors.affiliation: Biopolymers Interactions Assembly, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UR 1268 Nantes, France ; Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes Microorganismes, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UMR441 Castanet-Tolosan, France ; Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes Microorganismes, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR2594 Castanet-Tolosan, France.
authors.forename: Adelin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbacci
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Ingénieur, de l'Informatique et de l'Imagerie (ICube), Université de Strasbourg, UMR Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 7357 Illkirch, France.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Magnenet
authors.affiliation: Biopolymers Interactions Assembly, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UR 1268 Nantes, France.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lahaye
keywords: dissipative structure; integrative biology; modeling; nonequilibrium thermodynamics; plant sciences