UNIDIRECTIONAL WAVES ON RINGS - MODELS FOR CHIRAL PREFERENCE OF CIRCUMNUTATING PLANTS

Twining plants exhibit a striking oscillation of their stems in their quest for a support. The oscillations, called circumnutation, have per iods generally of 1-5 hr, and virtually all species have a preferred d irection of twining. I seek to explain these chiral asymmetries in pla nt behavior by hypothesizing a chiral asymmetry in plant anatomy. Such asymmetries already exist, for example, in phyllotaxis. I explore wav e phenomena on asymmetric but isotropic rings, and seek systems which will only support (stable) waves in one direction around the ring, and not in the other. Simulations indicate that (1) oscillatory reaction- diffusion systems do not support unidirectional waves on rings; (2) ex citable reaction-diffusion systems do support unidirectional waves on rings. and (3) unidirectional phase-locking (discrete unidirectional w aves) occurs in rings of coupled oscillators. Thus, chiral asymmetries of circumnutating plants cannot be explained by continuum oscillator phenomena, but can be explained by general discrete oscillators, or ex citable phenomena on the continuum.