Microfluidic granular avalanches: A model for gravity detection in plants cells

Abstract eng:
We study the avalanche dynamics of a granular media composed of microparticles (melamine resine, 5.17 um) in confined microfluidics systems. This experimental set-up allows us to mimic the behaviour of statoliths in plants cells, which are thought to be responsible for the plants’ response to gravity. Moreover, contrary to real plants (in-viva) experiments, our avalanches are done in a fully controlled environment, where the different roles of thermal fluctuations, non-Newtonian surrounding fluid, hydrodynamical and granular effects can be investigated. Comparison of this biomimetic system with measurements in wheat shoots suggest that fluctuations induced by cytoskeleton activity plays an important role in gravity detection by plants.

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