Scaling from organ level shade avoidance responses to plant performance at vegetation level: using virtual plant modelling as a tool

The shade avoidance syndrome (SAS) is one of the best-studied forms of plant phenotypic plasticity, and several studies have showed that SAS increases performance when competing for light with plants that do not show SAS. However, it is unknown how and why SAS responses increase performance during competition. With a virtual plant model of Arabidopsis thaliana we study the effect of shade avoidance responses on the performance of plants competing for light. With this model we distinguish between several responses within SAS, and determine their role for competition. (for more information see Bongers et al., 2014, New Phytologist)