Abstract
Plant adaption and survival relies on signalling, much of which is achieved through concentration changes in ions. Furthermore, plants can influence their growth and shape via changes in hydraulic pressure which in turn can be modulated by changes in ionic concentrations that drive osmosis. We present an introduction to mathematical modelling of ionic currents and transmembrane voltages, both intracellular and intercellular. We introduce the modelling techniques used to describe the physical processes involved in ion channel dynamics and illustrate their application using generic examples. We begin by discussing modelling of individual ion channels. Next, we present computational algorithms most commonly employed in simulating ionic currents passing via a single as well as an ensemble of the same ion channel type. We then discuss modelling of ionic current flow across cellular membrane that could involve different ion channel species. We end with an overview of modelling action potentials and their propagation resulting from interactions between different ion channels within as well as between cells. We illustrate this using a simplified example of plant action potential.
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Acknowledgements
KW was generously supported by the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Award (WT105618MA). KT-A gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the EPSRC via grant EP/N014391/1.
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Wedgwood, K.C.A., Tabak, J., Tsaneva-Atanasova, K. (2018). Modelling Ion Channels. In: Morris, R. (eds) Mathematical Modelling in Plant Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99070-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99070-5_3
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