Abstract
The cellular structure of plant tissues is a key parameter for determining their properties. While the morphology of cells can easily be described, few studies focus on the spatial distribution of different types of tissues within an organ. As plants have various shapes and sizes, the integration of several individuals for statistical analysis of tissues distribution is a difficult problem. The aim of this study is to propose a method that quantifies the average spatial organisation of vascular bundles within maize stems, by integrating information from replicated images. In order to compare observations made on stems of different sizes and shapes, a spatial normalisation strategy was used. A model of average stem contour was computed from the digitisation of several stem slab images. Point patterns obtained from individual stem slices were projected onto the average stem to normalise them. Group-wise analysis of the spatial distribution of vascular bundles was applied on normalised data through the construction of average intensity maps. A quantitative description of average bundle organisation was obtained, via a 3D model of bundle distribution within a typical maize internode. The proposed method is generic and could easily be extended to other plant organs or organisms.
Highlights
Crop species like maize (Zea mays L.) are of increasing interest for cattle feeding or for bioethanol production [1,2,3], and many studies have been devoted to the elucidation of relationships between cell wall chemical composition and degradability [4,5,6]
The spatial distribution of vascular bundles is investigated through the construction of average intensity maps, which integrate observations made on several samples
This study aims at estimating the intensity map of vascular bundles based on the replicated data
Summary
Crop species like maize (Zea mays L.) are of increasing interest for cattle feeding or for bioethanol production [1,2,3], and many studies have been devoted to the elucidation of relationships between cell wall chemical composition and degradability [4,5,6]. The spatial organisation of vascular bundles within the stem is considered. Vascular bundles are important in terms of stem structure and development. They are composed of several types of cells with different compositions and morphologies [13,14]. We propose to describe their spatial organisation using tools from spatial statistics Within this framework, the observed point patterns are considered as random realisations of a more general point process [15,16,17]. The spatial distribution of vascular bundles is investigated through the construction of average intensity maps, which integrate observations made on several samples
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