The role of elastic stresses on leaf venation morphogenesis

Abstract

We explore the possible role of elastic mismatch between epidermis and mesophyll as a driving force for the development of leaf venation. The current prevalent 'canalization' hypothesis for the formation of veins claims that the transport of the hormone auxin out of the leaves triggers cell differentiation to form veins. Although there is evidence that auxin plays a fundamental role in vein formation, the simple canalization mechanism may not be enough to explain some features observed in the vascular system of leaves, in particular, the abundance of vein loops. We present a model based on the existence of mechanical instabilities that leads very naturally to hierarchical patterns with a large number of closed loops. When applied to the structure of high order veins, the numerical results show the same qualitative features as actual venation patterns and, furthermore, have the same statistical properties. We argue that the agreement between actual and simulated patterns provides strong evidence for the role of mechanical effects on venation development.

10 figures, published in PLoS Computational Biology

References in corpus (2)

• Structure, Scaling and Phase Transition in the Optimal Transport Network
• Morphologies of expansion ridges of elastic thin films onto a substrate

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• Crack patterns over uneven substrates
• Discontinuous transition to loop formation in optimal supply networks
• Optimal elasticity of biological networks
• A model for hierarchical patterns under mechanical stresses
• Morphometric analysis of polygonal cracking patterns in desiccated starch slurries