Figure 2
Biophysical modeling predicts scaling relationship between tip shape, cell width, and the size of the zone of insertion. Modeling in [41] predicts that for a tip-growing cell with radius R and tip radius of curvature R A (represented by brown spheres), both R and R A depend inversely on the turgor pressure P. R also increases with the size a of the region over which new wall material is inserted (green), and the ratio of R A and R scales as (R/a)2. Measurements of tip shape in various tip-growing species showed that R A increased linearly with R[41], suggesting that the dimensions of the insertion zone increase linearly with R.