Mineral deposits occur in many, but not all plant leaves. In those leaves that do have minerals, the mineral type, morphology and the distributions within the leaves are under strict control. In fact, mineralization in certain leaves is a well-preserved trait throughout evolution, indicating that such…

Anthocyanins are vacuolar pigments derived from the phenylpropanoid pathway that are produced in many different plant species. The role of anthocyanin accumulation under stress in vegetative tissues is probably linked to the scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants…

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is a globally cultivated globally crop of vast economic importance. Pathogens and pests are major limitations to cotton yield and quality. Verticillium wilt, caused by the fungus Verticillium dahliae, is the disease most detrimental to cotton production. Cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa…

PLOS One. Endoreduplicated cells grow in size as their DNA content increases. The distribution of size was observed to be Poisson. This allowed the authors to create a mathematical model with a single parameter which describes the probability of exiting endoreduplication. The model recovers cell size…

PLOS One. Plant stomatal opening is controlled by phytohormones, among other factors. This article models the phytohormone signaling response in guard cells using ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Sixteen components in this system were analyzed by constructing 16 different models and determining…

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. GENIST (gene regulatory network inference from spatiotemporal data) is a new algorithm developed by de Luis Balaguer et al to predict new gene interactions and transcriptional regulators (available at https://github.com/madeluis/GENIST). The algorithm combines inference of…

PLOS Biol. This article describes a stochastic mathematical model of the stomatal closure network responding to abscisic acid (ABA). The Boolean network is constructed from a comprehensive literature review of the components’ dependencies. The model’s predictions agree with experimental data 90%…

Sci Reports. Both starch degradation and accumulating sucrose levels are related to the circadian cycle, although it is unknown which is the primary regulator. The authors created a mathematical model wherein the circadian oscillator responds to sucrose. The model predictions were experimentally validated…