Plant cell walls and biomechanics

Biomechanics and the multiscale causalities of plant actuation related to tissue, cell, and cell wall properties.

(Collaboration with Dr. Damiano Pasini, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Alejandro Rey, Department of Chemical Engineering)

Funding through FRQNT-Equipe and NSERC Discovery Grant program.

Publications

Asgari, M., Brulé, V., Pasini, D., and Western, T.L. (2020). Nano-indentation reveals a potential role for gradients of cell wall stiffness in directional movement of the resurrection plant Selaginella lepidophylla. Sci. Reports. 10, 506.

Brulé, V., Rafsanjani, A., Asgari, M., Western, T.L., and Pasini, D. (2019). Three-dimensional functional gradients direct stem curling in the resurrection plant Selaginella lepidophylla. J. Roy. Soc. Interface. 16, 20190454.

Faisal, T.R., Hristozov, N., Western, T.L., Rey, A.D and Pasini, D. (2017) The twist-to-bend compliance of the Rheum rhabarbarum petiole: integrated computations and experiments. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 20: 343-354.

Brulé, V., Rafsanjani, A., Pasini, D. and Western, T.L. (2016) Hierarchies of plant stiffness. Plant Science 250, 2016: 79-96.

Rafsanjani, A., Brulé, V., Western, T.L., and Pasini, D. (2015) Hydro-responsive curling of the resurrection plant Selaginella lepidophylla. Scientific Reports 5: 8064.

Faisal, T.R., Hristozov, N., Western, T.L., Rey, A.D., and Pasini, D. (2014) Computational study of the elastic properties of Rheum rhabarbarum tissues via surrogate models of tissue geometry. Journal of Structural Biology 185, 285-294.

Faisal, T.R., Hristozov, N., Rey, A.D., Western, T.L. and Pasini, D. (2012) Experimental determination of Philodendron melinonii and Arabidopsis thaliana tissue microstructure and geometric modeling via Finite Edge Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation. Phys. Rev. E. 86, 031921.