Biological strain/stress sensing power in plants and modelling mechanisms

This paper describes a cell based mechanosensing power and adapting modelling mechanisms found in plants. Biological structures consist of mechanical load carriers, which are strongly optimised in terms of mechanical strength and minimum mass. It is shown that bamboo structures are designed to have uniform stresses at all positions, applying various sizes of bamboo fibre at the optimal locations. As a significant biological design system, a biological sensing power for detecting the strain/stress induced by external loads can be accepted. The mechanosensing system can be regarded as that in which live cells detect the external mechanical strain/stress as biological electric signals generated by the motions of various ions throughout and/or into the channels of the cell membrane. The modelling mechanism is a cell based mechanosensor that depends on the kind of plant. Three types for detecting the mechanical strain/stress (tension sensitive, compression sensitive, and tension and compression sensitive types) are investigated. Changes in electrical signals at the local portion of a plant body due to the mechanical deformation of cell membranes, affect the modelling of a plant's tissue to fit external mechanical environments.