Simulation of regulatory strategies in a morphogen based model of Arabidopsis leaf growth.

Simulation has become an important tool for studying plant physiology. An important aspect of this is discovering the processes that influence leaf growth at a cellular level. To this end, we have extended an existing, morphogen-based model for the growth of Arabidopsis leaves. We have fitted parameters to match important leaf growth properties reported in experimental data. A sensitivity analysis was performed, which allowed us to estimate the effect of these different parameters on leaf growth, and identify viable strategies for increasing leaf size.