Measuring the deformation of cells within a piece of compressed potato tuber tissue

For the successful mathematical mechanical modelling of living plant tissue s, relationships between cellular deformations and tissue deformation need to be investigated. In previous work these relationships have often been as sumed. In this paper the deformation of living cells within potato tuber ti ssue is measured using light microscopy and image analysis and is analysed in relation to applied tissue deformations. The cell wail deformation was f ound to depend upon the orientation of the cell wall faces with respect to the global axes of the tissue and the applied tissue deformation. Some face s experienced compression, which reduced their surface area; others were de formed in bi-axial tension, thus increasing their surface area. These defor mations were successfully related to the global tissue deformations, using a simple constant volume affine deformation model, up to compressive deform ations of 20% of specimen height. Some deviation from the model was observe d due to the bending of cell walls in compression. (C) 2000 Annals of Botan y Company.