2021 Volume 33 Issue 1 Pages 53-58
Regularity in phyllotaxis, or the arrangement of leaves around a stem, has attracted attention of researchers over centuries. Physicists and mathematicians as well as botanists have contributed to the phyllotaxis studies, giving a successful example of the continuous collaboration between observations, experiments, and theoretical works, which is rather rare in biological fields. Representative phyllotactic patterns including spiral phyllotaxis with the golden angle are reproduced by multiple mathematical models without depending on model details, indicating the universality of such patterns. Diversity and flexibility of patterns have been explained by results that the patterns can be switched by a small number of parameters, which can be interpreted to measurable values such as the size ratio between organ primordia and shoot apical meristem. In this review, I briefly describe the contribution of mathematical modelling approach on phyllotactic pattern formation. A mathematical model of phyllotaxis has been applied to floral development, and numerical simulations of the model have suggested non-intuitive transitions between patterns. Suggestions raised by theoretical studies would stimulate further experimental studies and advance our understandings on plant pattern formation.
