An Individual Based Model of Wound Closure in Plant Stems
Authored by Francesco Giannino, Bruno Hay Mele, Micco Veronica De, Gerardo Toraldo, Stefano Mazzoleni, Fabrizio Carteni
Date Published: 2019
DOI: 10.1109/access.2019.2915575
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Abstract
Wound closure in plant stems (after either fire or mechanical damage) is
a complex, multi-scale process that involves the formation of a callous
tissue (callus lips) responsible for cell proliferation and overgrowth
at the injury edges, resulting in coverage of the scarred tissue.
Investigating such phenomena, it is difficult to discriminate between
cell-specific growth responses, associated with physiological
adaptations, and cell proliferation reactions emerging from specific
cambium dynamics due to changes in mechanical constrains. In particular,
the effects of cell-cell mechanical interactions on the wound closure
process have never been investigated. To understand to what extent
callus lip formation depends on the intra-tissue mechanical balance of
forces, we built a simplified individual-based model (IBM) of cell
division and differentiation in a generic woody tissue. Despite its
simplified physiological assumptions, the model was capable to simulate
callus hyperproliferation and wound healing as an emergent property of
the mechanical interactions between individual cells. The model output
suggests that the existence of a scar alone does constrain the growth
trajectories of the remaining proliferating cells around the injury,
thus resulting in the wound closure, ultimately engulfing the damaged
tissue in the growing stem.
Tags
wound healing
mathematical modelling
Infection
IBM
Framework
Wood
Cell mechanics
Natural hazards
Fire-scar
Wood anatomy