Repulsion pressure model and numerical simulation for spiral phyllotactic patterns of plants

Math Biosci. 2013 Mar;242(1):68-76. doi: 10.1016/j.mbs.2012.12.002. Epub 2012 Dec 25.

Abstract

We present biologically motivated simple models to study phyllotaxis patterns. A simplified MaxMin-principle is applied for determining new-born primordium appearance. We propose a new repulsion pressure model to interpret the angle movement of each primordium influenced by the repulsion from all other primordia or from the nearest left and right neighbors. For a large range of growing velocities, both mechanisms can generate uniformly packed patterns under suitable settings of repulsion parameters. Measurement of the pattern uniformity and demonstration of robustness are also provided.

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Models, Biological*
  • Morphogenesis
  • Plants / anatomy & histology*