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Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes

Through natural selection, many plant organs have evolved optimal morphologies at different length scales. However, the biomechanical strategies for different plant species to optimize their organ structures remain unclear. Here, we investigate several species of aquatic macrophytes living in the sa...

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Autores principales: Zhao, Zi-Long, Zhao, Hong-Ping, Li, Bing-Wei, Nie, Ben-Dian, Feng, Xi-Qiao, Gao, Huajian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4518234/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26219724
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep12610
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author Zhao, Zi-Long
Zhao, Hong-Ping
Li, Bing-Wei
Nie, Ben-Dian
Feng, Xi-Qiao
Gao, Huajian
author_facet Zhao, Zi-Long
Zhao, Hong-Ping
Li, Bing-Wei
Nie, Ben-Dian
Feng, Xi-Qiao
Gao, Huajian
author_sort Zhao, Zi-Long
collection PubMed
description Through natural selection, many plant organs have evolved optimal morphologies at different length scales. However, the biomechanical strategies for different plant species to optimize their organ structures remain unclear. Here, we investigate several species of aquatic macrophytes living in the same natural environment but adopting distinctly different twisting chiral morphologies. To reveal the principle of chiral growth in these plants, we performed systematic observations and measurements of morphologies, multiscale structures, and mechanical properties of their slender emergent stalks or leaves. Theoretical modeling of pre-twisted beams in bending and buckling indicates that the different growth tactics of the plants can be strongly correlated with their biomechanical functions. It is shown that the twisting chirality of aquatic macrophytes can significantly improve their survivability against failure under both internal and external loads. The theoretical predictions for different chiral configurations are in excellent agreement with experimental measurements.
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spelling pubmed-45182342015-08-06 Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes Zhao, Zi-Long Zhao, Hong-Ping Li, Bing-Wei Nie, Ben-Dian Feng, Xi-Qiao Gao, Huajian Sci Rep Article Through natural selection, many plant organs have evolved optimal morphologies at different length scales. However, the biomechanical strategies for different plant species to optimize their organ structures remain unclear. Here, we investigate several species of aquatic macrophytes living in the same natural environment but adopting distinctly different twisting chiral morphologies. To reveal the principle of chiral growth in these plants, we performed systematic observations and measurements of morphologies, multiscale structures, and mechanical properties of their slender emergent stalks or leaves. Theoretical modeling of pre-twisted beams in bending and buckling indicates that the different growth tactics of the plants can be strongly correlated with their biomechanical functions. It is shown that the twisting chirality of aquatic macrophytes can significantly improve their survivability against failure under both internal and external loads. The theoretical predictions for different chiral configurations are in excellent agreement with experimental measurements. Nature Publishing Group 2015-07-29 /pmc/articles/PMC4518234/ /pubmed/26219724 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep12610 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Zhao, Zi-Long
Zhao, Hong-Ping
Li, Bing-Wei
Nie, Ben-Dian
Feng, Xi-Qiao
Gao, Huajian
Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes
title Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes
title_full Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes
title_fullStr Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes
title_full_unstemmed Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes
title_short Biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes
title_sort biomechanical tactics of chiral growth in emergent aquatic macrophytes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4518234/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26219724
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep12610
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