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Modelling Ammonium Transporters in Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Symbiosis

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Transactions on Computational Systems Biology XIII

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((TCSB,volume 6575))

Abstract

The Stochastic Calculus of Wrapped Compartments (SCWC) is a recently proposed variant of the Stochastic Calculus of Looping Sequences (SCLS), a language for the representation and simulation of biological systems. In this work we apply SCWC to model a newly discovered ammonium transporter. This transporter is believed to play a fundamental role for plant mineral acquisition, which takes place in the arbuscular mycorrhiza, the most wide-spread plant-fungus symbiosis on earth. Investigating this kind of symbiosis is considered one of the most promising ways to develop methods to nurture plants in more natural manners, avoiding the complex chemical productions used nowadays to produce artificial fertilizers. In our experiments the passage of NH 3 / NH 4  +  from the fungus to the plant has been dissected in known and hypothetical mechanisms; with the model so far we have been able to simulate the behavior of the system under different conditions. Our simulations confirmed some of the latest experimental results about the LjAMT2;2 transporter. Moreover, by comparing the behaviour of LjAMT2;2 with the behaviour of another ammonium transporter which exists in plants, viz. LjAMT1;1, our simulations support an hypothesis about why LjAMT2;2 is so selectively expressed in arbusculated cells.

This research is founded by the BioBITs Project (Converging Technologies 2007, area: Biotechnology–ICT), Regione Piemonte.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, Università di Torino, Italy

    Mario Coppo, Ferruccio Damiani, Maurizio Drocco, Elena Grassi & Angelo Troina

  2. Molecular Biotechnology Center, Dipartimento di Genetica, Biologia e Biochimica, Università di Torino, Italy

    Elena Grassi

  3. Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università di Torino, Italy

    Mike Guether

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  1. Mario Coppo
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  2. Ferruccio Damiani
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  4. Elena Grassi
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  5. Mike Guether
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  6. Angelo Troina
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Computational and Systems Biology, The Microsoft Research - University of Trento, Piazza Manci, 17, 38050, Povo (TN), Italy

    Corrado Priami

  2. Department of Information Technologies, Åbo Akademi University, Joukahaisenkatu 3-5 A, FI-20520, Turku, Finland

    Ralph-Johan Back

  3. Department of Information Technologies, Åbo Akademi University, ICT Building, Joukahaisenkatu 3-5 A, 20520, Turku, Finland

    Ion Petre

  4. Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Erik de Vink

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Coppo, M., Damiani, F., Drocco, M., Grassi, E., Guether, M., Troina, A. (2011). Modelling Ammonium Transporters in Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Symbiosis. In: Priami, C., Back, RJ., Petre, I., de Vink, E. (eds) Transactions on Computational Systems Biology XIII. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 6575. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19748-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19748-2_5

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