Particle-based model shows complex rearrangement of tissue mechanical properties are needed for roots to grow in hard soil
Fig 6
Future applications for SPH models in root developmental biology.
Image processing pipelines currently available to analyze 3D live microscopy data can extract the geometrical properties of cells (top left). These were used to compute the shape matrix of particles Qi and were used as input for SPH simulation (top right). The model then could compute the growth of plant roots, including cell size (bottom left, colored ellipsoids) and strain rate (bottom left, arrows show radial velocity). Kernel functions could then be used to compute cell walls (bottom right). Here, the root is represented either as a whole (top) or following a cross section (bottom).