Auxin Transport

Introduction

This model addresses the transport of the hormone auxin through a file of plant cells. Auxin plays a major role in many aspects of plant growth and development. It moves through the plant in a polar manner due to non-uniform spatial distributions of active influx and efflux carriers on the cell membranes, and the resulting auxin distributions influence a wide range of processes, including organ initiation, vein formation and gravitropism. Modelling auxin transport is thus an active research area in plant systems biology. The models are inherently multiscale, as cell-scale processes lead to tissue-scale phenomena. To date, the majority of modelling in this area computes solutions by simulating large systems of deterministic ordinary differential equations, and there are relatively few examples of alternative modelling techniques. The model with a single file of cells can be seen below:

This stochastic computational model simulates the interaction of auxin at a molecular scale and, by analysing the gross movement of auxin from one compartment to the next, allow us to determine auxin dynamics at the tissue scale based on the mechanistic interactions of auxin at the molecular scale.

The model

The model is specified in SBML standard and can be downloaded here. For more information about the model, you should refer to:

Stochastic and Deterministic Multiscale Models for Systems Biology: an Auxin-Transport Case Study. Jamie Twycross, Leah R. Band, Malcolm J. Bennett, John R. King and Natalio Krasnogor. BMC Systems Biology, 4(1):1-34, 2010.

A pdf copy of this paper is also available with the model file. This model is also available at EBI BioModels database (ID: MODEL1005200000) and JWS Model Repository.