Linking local to global properties in branching modular networks: gorgonian coral colonies |
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Authors: | Nini Johanna Cadena Camilo Rey Marcela Hernández-Hoyos J Darío Sánchez Stanislas Teillaud Nestor Ardila Juan A Sánchez |
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Institution: | 1. Laboratorio de Biología Molecular Marina—BIOMMAR, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas-Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de los Andes, P.O. Box 4976, Bogotá, Colombia 2. Grupo Imagine, Grupo de Ingeniería Biomédica. Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia 3. Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Nacional del Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia 4. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Programa de Biología Marina, Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá, Colombia
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Abstract: | Branching growth is present both in plants and animals, either marine or terrestrial. Although cellular and other modular
levels of organization in plants and animals have evolved through different molecular and physiological mechanisms, several
aspects of their branching modular system and morphology are similar. We studied vessel organization and colony integration,
in order to comprehend underlying relationships between different structural components in a gorgonian coral network. The
theoretical formalism was validated in the gorgonian coral Eunicea mammosa (Plexauridae, Octocorallia) in Belize. As in vascular plants, these colonial animals create a complex network of connections
among modular branches integrated in stem canals downstream toward the base. A new formalism is proposed for describing gorgonian
branching. A global property of a colony is for instance the size of its base or its weight whereas a local property is the
size of branch in a particular place of the colony. However, a global property is not the simple addition of local modular
properties, as the case of stem canals in the colony base. Theoretically, the process of branching is tightly intertwined
with the internal network organization. The colony network centralization is driven by a linear relationship between the total
number of branches and the stem canals at the base of the colony. If stem canals play important roles in the transport of
nutrients throughout the colony and the biomechanical support from the base up to the tips, we can assume that there is an
underlying association between the number of stem canals at the base and the number of for example, terminal branches. These
associations may provide new findings that extend our understanding of the functional organization of tree-like networks in
octocorals and their vascular systems. The idea that the external components of a tree-like plant network are directly correlated
and connected down to the main trunk seems to be analogous in an animal system. |
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