Dear all,
Our next seminar will be given by Prof. Yasmine Meroz from the School of Plant Science and Food Security and the Center for Physics and Chemistry of Living Systems at Tel Aviv University.
Place and time: Biology auditorium, Monday 18/11 at 13:00.
Title: Plant Tropisms as a Window on Plant Computational Processes
Abstract:
Plants generally move by growing towards or away from directional environmental signals such as light or gravity – processes called tropisms. While they are not motile, they survive in a harsh and fluctuating environment, optimizing their search for fluctuating nutrients, and predicting danger. They achieve this through complex response processes, such as decision-making, based on memory, or the capability to accumulate and compare past stimuli. For example, a plant shoot accumulates sensory information from various fluctuating light sources, decides which direction yields consistently most light for photosynthesis, and grows in that direction. Here we propose a reverse-engineering approach to investigating the underlying rules for the accumulation and integration of sensory inputs. Our theoretical model, based on response theory, predicts that plants respond to the sum of stimuli at short timescales, and to the difference in stimuli at longer timescales. We confirm this experimentally and suggest that this process may be essential for navigational problem-solving capabilities of plants.
Meroz lab website: https://www.merozlab.com/
For inquiries regarding the course, please contact Prof. Dedi Meiri <dmeiri@technion.ac.il>
