Team : MECA 

Project manager :  BADEL Eric  

Project link : https://anr.fr/Projet-ANR-22-CE13-0034

Context

An important lever of climate change mitigation policies is the massive use of wood to replace more energy-intensive and less recyclable materials. Its particular cellular structure makes it a sophisticated composite material with multiple and rapidly diversifying uses. Wood is also a gigantic carbon sink, constituting more than half of the planet's biomass. However, the basic physical mechanisms that govern the formation of wood by cambium (cell division and enlargement) remain poorly understood. It has been demonstrated, on animal tissues and on the apical meristem of plants, that the mechanical state of cells plays a predominant role in these processes of cell division and expansion. However, the cambium is in a particular mechanical state; confined between the rigid tissues of the bark and the previously formed xylem.

General presentation

CEMACam will explore the role of the mechanical state of the cambium in the cellular processes of wood formation. We will test two hypotheses: (H1) the mechanical constraints imposed by the bark influence growth by constraining cell expansion, and (H2) the local stress field in the cambium determines the orientation of cell division planes. The study will require mechanical modeling at the tissue and cellular scales. The physical parameters that will feed the models, such as in situ turgor pressure or local mechanical properties, will be measured on original devices thanks to the complementarity of the two teams in the consortium and their partners.

Model validation will be conducted through original experiments. In particular, we will impose controlled mechanical constraints on the cambium and compare the resulting wood formation with model predictions.

CEMACam aims to provide a physical foundation for understanding the mechanisms of wood morphogenesis.

Partners

UMR PIAF, UMR LMGC, Université de Grenoble Alpes, IPSIM

Fundings

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)