acta societatis botanicorum poloniae - LV Zjazd Polskiego ...

55th Meeting of the Polish Botanical Society, Warsaw 2010
have studied the importance of the tolerance parameter used in
our simulations. It is natural to assume that in vivo the vertical
positioning of primordia or the changes in their size, are not
ideal mathematically. Introducing tolerance made the effects of
simulations closer to reality. One of the most astounding results
was the increase in the number of parastichies under condition
of the apex determined growth. For example, in the case
when self renewal of the cells slows down and the organogenic
surface shrinks relative to the primordia size. This effect had
been sometimes observed in the floral shoots of Magnolia, our
long time model plant. Its appearance was always puzzling because
under these developmental circumstances, a decrease in
the parastichy number should be expected. This way we have
proven that the proportion between the primordia size and the
size of organogenic surface does not define phyllotactic pattern
unequivocally. The history of the developing system is of importance
too. High correlation of the results of the experiments
performed in silico with the course of natural phyllotactic transitions,
indicates that the assumptions of the geometric model
of phyllotaxis are not unrealistic and that the model is suitable
for studying the activity of growing SAM. Next, we will try to
understand why the plants have clear preferences with regard to
the particular phyllotactic patterns, which results in the species
specific spectra of phyllotaxis.