Integrative Mechanobiology of Growth and Architectural Development in Changing Mechanical Environments

Abstract : Mechanosensitive control of plant growth is a major process shaping how terrestrial plants acclimate to the mechanical challenges set by wind, self-weight, and autostresses. Loads acting on the plant are distributed down to the tissues, following continuum mechanics. Mechanosensing, though, occurs within the cell, building up into integrated signals; yet the reviews on mechanosensing tend to address macroscopic and molecular responses, ignoring the biomechanical aspects of load distribution to tissues and reducing biological signal integration to a "mean plant cell." In this chapter, load distribution and biological signal integration are analyzed directly. The Sum of Strain Sensing model S 3 m is then discussed as a synthesis of the state of the art in quantitative deterministic knowledge and as a template for the development of an integrative and system mechanobiology.