English

Scaling Relations for Auxin Waves

Analysis of PDEs 2022-03-07 v1

Abstract

We analyze an 'up-the-gradient' model for the formation of transport channels of the phytohormone auxin, through auxin-mediated polarization of the PIN1 auxin transporter. We show that this model admits a family of travelling wave solutions that is parameterized by the height of the auxin-pulse. We uncover scaling relations for the speed and width of these waves and verify these rigorous results with numerical computations. In addition, we provide explicit expressions for the leading-order wave profiles, which allows the influence of the biological parameters in the problem to be readily identified. Our proofs are based on a generalization of the scaling principle developed by Friesecke and Pego to construct pulse solutions to the classic Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou model, which describes a one-dimensional chain of coupled nonlinear springs.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2203.02031,
  title  = {Scaling Relations for Auxin Waves},
  author = {Timothy E. Faver and Hermen Jan Hupkes and Roeland M. H. Merks and Jelle van der Voort},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.02031},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:01:32.109Z