CD BioSciences is committed to providing our customers with mechanical analyses of large-scale leaf growth to help them better understand the behavioral patterns and mechanical properties of leaf tissue. Our expert technical support and high-quality scientific services will greatly accelerate your research in the field of plant biomechanics.

Background

A growing leaf is a typical active solid because its active units, the cells, undergo local deformation during the out-of-equilibrium process of growth. During growth, the leaf expands by several orders of magnitude, but still maintains its proper shape, which is usually flat. This localized growth process is dependent on various factors of a mechanical and biochemical nature, such as osmotic pressure, cell wall properties and the interaction between neighboring cells.

The complex mechanisms that regulate the local, individual expansion of multiple cells to a well-defined shape have not yet been fully elucidated. Researchers at CD BioSciences have focused primarily on geometrical and mechanical aspects of large-scale leaf growth, such as viscous and elastic moduli, stress-strain response and the typical statistical properties of the growing field. We view the leaf as a thin sheet of active material that is able to adjust and respond to signals from its natural internal growth processes and surrounding environment to better understand the growth patterns and mechanical properties of the whole tissue.

Fig.1 (a) An example of the spatial growth field of a leaf and (b) a distribution of lateral growth values. (Sharon, 2018)

Our Services

Our services include but are not limited to:

• We help customers develop cell-based mechanical models to describe the temporal evolution of the vascular network to reproduce the mechanisms of large-scale leaf growth.
• We help clients expect the viscoelastic behavior of intact leaf tissue through modeling. We use dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) to provide information about the elastic and viscous properties of the tissue before and after exposure to prolonged mechanical stress.
• We measure the entire leaf scale, providing information on both the geometric field (growth statistics) and the mechanical properties. Such measurements can be combined with theoretical and numerical modeling of growth to reveal the governing equations of growth field motion.
• We provide measurements of biological activity in growing/loaded leaves, providing the possibility of completing the picture by finding the underlying biological processes that determine these effective equations.

The Main Goals of Services We Provide:

• A more complete description of leaf growth processes from the perspective of active matter.
• An understanding of the biological processes underlying these large-scale behaviors, including cell wall changes, and the processes that control cellular water uptake and turgor pressure.

Our Advantages

• Cutting-edge apparatuses
• Reproducible process
• Fast turnaround time
• Detailed delivery report

With many years of experience in the field of plant biomechanics, CD BioSciences is well placed to provide efficient mechanical analyses of leaf growth on large scales. Our dedicated technical team will constantly follow the progress of your project and provide you with the optimal solutions. If you are interested in our services, please contact us for more information.

Reference

1. Sharon, E.; Sahaf, M. The mechanics of leaf growth on large scales. Springer. 2018: 109-126.

• Mechanical Analysis of Twisted Growth in Plant Roots
• Structural Characterization of Tension Wood
• Imaging of Plant Morphogenesis
• Quantification of Plant Morphogenesis
• Modeling of Plant Morphogenesis
• Analysis of Hygromechanical Behavior of Wood
• Analysis of Leaf Hydraulics