Tendril perversion—a physical implication of the topological conservation law

Pierański, P.; Baranska, Justyna; Skjeltorp, A. T.

doi:10.1088/0143-0807/25/5/004

Cited by 29 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…1, the tendril will gradually evolve into a helical shape with opposite handedness, providing an elastic spring-like support that enables the plant to climb to a sufficient height. The chiral perversion process of a tendril can be interpreted by the topological conservation law1819. In both cases, tendrils assume an initial curvature induced by differential growth.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Analysis of the global twining direction of climbing plants shows that the predominance of a specific chirality in the helical growth of climbing plants should be attributed to the microstructures at the subcellular level rather than the Coriolis effect17. In addition, previous studies revealed that the intrinsic torsion of tendril filaments drives them to form helices with a specific handedness or opposite handednesses11819. However, the physical mechanisms underlying the intrinsic torsion of tendril filaments have rarely been discussed.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Hierarchical chirality transfer in the growth of Towel Gourd tendrils

Wang

Feng

et al. 2013

Sci Rep

138

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Chirality plays a significant role in the physical properties and biological functions of many biological materials, e.g., climbing tendrils and twisted leaves, which exhibit chiral growth. However, the mechanisms underlying the chiral growth of biological materials remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate how the Towel Gourd tendrils achieve their chiral growth. Our experiments reveal that the tendrils have a hierarchy of chirality, which transfers from the lower levels to the higher. The change in the helical angle of cellulose fibrils at the subcellular level induces an intrinsic torsion of tendrils, leading to the formation of the helical morphology of tendril filaments. A chirality transfer model is presented to elucidate the chiral growth of tendrils. This present study may help understand various chiral phenomena observed in biological materials. It also suggests that chirality transfer can be utilized in the development of hierarchically chiral materials having unique properties. Many biological materials, such as climbing plant tendrils 1,2 , flower petals of Paphiopedilum dianthum 3 , and snail shells 4 , exhibit chiral growth. In these natural materials, there are a number of distributed chiral elements, e.g., biomacromolecules, which lead to the formation of various chiral morphologies and surface patterns at the macroscopic scale. For example, helices and twisted belts are often observed to form in growing biological materials. These chiral morphologies generally tend to a specific handedness, either right or left 5 . A well-known example is climbing tendrils, which help some climbing plants attach to trees or other objects and to provide supporting forces 2 . The investigation of the mechanisms underlying the chiral growth of biological materials is a fundamental and important issue in not only developmental biology but also materials science and technology.The chiral shapes of some biological and artificial materials may origin from the asymmetry of growth, deswelling 6,7 , surface stresses 8,9 and other physical quantities associated with anisotropic atomic or molecular structures 10 . For example, the formation of twisting belts of Bauhinia seed pods 6 and chiral polymer lamellae 3 has been attributed to the anisotropy of material properties and surface stresses, respectively. From the view point of chirality transfer, the chiral morphologies of many biological materials originate from the chirality of their microscopic constituent building blocks. Typical examples include the flagellar filaments of bacteria [11][12][13] , the flower petals of Paphiopedilumdilum dianthum 3 , and the stork's bill awns 14,15 . Their chiral growth is caused by the helical arrangements of protein lattices, cortical microtubules, and tilted celluloses at the micro scale, respectively. The helical tendrils of climbing plants have attracted the interest of many scientists since the pioneering work of Charles Darwin 2 . A recent study suggested that Cucumber tendril coiling might be induced by the asymmetric contra...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Hierarchical chirality transfer in the growth of Towel Gourd tendrils

Wang

Feng

et al. 2013

Sci Rep

138

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“…According to the topological conservation law, [91,92] the sum of the writhe Wr (non-planarity of the ribbon axis) and of the twist Tw (turns around the ribbon axis) of an open curve is constant Silver paste electrodes (SPI Conductive Silver Paint, sheet resistance ≤0.01 Ω sq −1 ) of 3 mm were painted on the samples, keeping apart 3 mm spacing.…”

Section: Wwwadvsustainsyscommentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Electronics Based on Crop Plant Extracts and Graphene: A “Bioadvantaged” Approach

Cataldi

Heredia‐Guerrero

Guzmán-Puyol

et al. 2018

Advanced Sustainable Systems

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In today's fast‐paced and well‐connected world, consumer electronics are evolving rapidly. As a result, the amount of discarded electronic devices is becoming a major health and environmental concern. The rapid expansion of flexible electronics has the potential to transform consumer electronic devices from rigid phones and tablets to robust wearable devices. This means increased use of plastics in consumer electronics and the potential to generate more persistent plastic waste for the environment. Hence, today, the need for flexible biodegradable electronics is at the forefront of minimizing the mounting pile of global electronic waste. A “bioadvantaged” approach to develop a biodegradable, flexible, and application‐adaptable electronic components based on crop components and graphene is reported. More specifically, by combining zein, a corn‐derived protein, and aleuritic acid, a major monomer of tomato cuticles and sheellac, along with graphene, biocomposite conductors having low electrical resistance (≈10 Ω sq−1) with exceptional mechanical and fatigue resilience are fabricated. Further, a number of high‐performance electronic applications, such as THz electromagnetic shielding, flexible GHz antenna construction, and flexible solar cell electrode, are demonstrated. Excellent performance results are measured from each application comparable to conventional nondegrading counterparts, thus paving the way for the concept of “plant‐e‐tronics” towards sustainability.

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“…(An excellent account of the history of understanding perversions in tendrils is given by McMillen and Goriely 11 ). As Darwin proposed and has been discussed more recently in topological terms 12 , once the growing tendril has attached to a support, it's ends are fixed and so to minimize the possibility of breaking by continued twisting, a perversion forms to create equal left and right-handed segments and the net twist is conserved. Similarly, bacteria can change direction of motion propagating a right-handed helix into a left-handed helix, thus creating a perversion 13 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous and deterministic three-dimensional curling of pre-strained elastomeric bi-strips

et al. 2012

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Three dimensional curls ("hemi-helices") consisting of multiple, periodic and alternating helical sections of opposite chiralities, separated by perversions, are one of a variety of complex shapes that can be produced by a simple generic process consisting of pre-straining one elastomeric strip, joining it side-by-side to another and then releasing the bi-strip. The initial wavelength of the hemi-helix and the number of perversions are determined by the strip crosssection, the constitutive behavior of the elastomer and the value of the pre-strain. The hemihelix has no net twist. Topologically, the perversions separate regions of the hemi-helix deforming principally by bending from those where twisting dominates.

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Tendril perversion—a physical implication of the topological conservation law

Cited by 29 publications

References 13 publications

Hierarchical chirality transfer in the growth of Towel Gourd tendrils

Hierarchical chirality transfer in the growth of Towel Gourd tendrils

Sustainable Electronics Based on Crop Plant Extracts and Graphene: A “Bioadvantaged” Approach

Spontaneous and deterministic three-dimensional curling of pre-strained elastomeric bi-strips

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