Plant hormone signaling during development: insights from computational models

Recent years have seen an impressive increase in our knowledge of the topology of plant hormone signaling networks. The complexity of these topologies has motivated the development of models for several hormones to aid understanding of how signaling networks process hormonal inputs. Such work has generated essential insights into the mechanisms of hormone perception and of regulation of cellular responses such as transcription in response to hormones. In addition, modeling approaches have contributed significantly to exploring how spatio-temporal regulation of hormone signaling contributes to plant growth and patterning. New tools have also been developed to obtain quantitative information on hormone distribution during development and to test model predictions, opening the way for quantitative understanding of the developmental roles of hormones. ⺠Plant hormone signaling pathways exhibit complex topologies. ⺠Computational models predict the dynamics of hormone signaling. ⺠Modeling provides key insights on the role of hormones during growth and development. ⺠New tools allow for a quantitative understanding of hormone signaling.