Research outcomes
Physical mechanism of corolla elongation in morning glory
Flowers are beautiful because of its proper opening where petals/corolla expand widely while it has been largely unknown how the corolla can achieve its proper straight elongation in a restricted narrow space in the closed floral buds during development. Collaborating with Dr. Seiji Takeda (Kyoto Prefectural University), we show that glandular secretory trichomes (GSTs) reduce a physical friction between floral organs, which is essential for the proper straight elongation. My contribution was a computational modeling indicating that the folding from straight elongation occurs because of elastic buckling due to mechanical stress at the distal side of the corolla by finite element method simulations. Our results suggest a novel function of GSTs in regulating the physical interaction of floral organs for macroscopic morphogenesis of the corolla.
URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-01814-x
Plant Metabolic Regulation
https://bsw3.naist.jp/eng/courses/courses104.html
( March 11, 2021 )
