Computational analyses of the structure of epidermal tissues in plants

Pavement epidermal cells in leaves form lobes as they grow from convex polygonal shapes early in development into highly irregular jigsaw puzzle-piece shapes in mature leaves. The interlocking of highly lobed pavement epidermal cells in mature leaves provides their mechanical strength. Aided by discrete element method simulations of the deformable particle model, we segment and analyze the shapes of thousands of pavement epidermal cells from confocal microscopy images. In particular, we quantify the number and sizes of the lobes for each cell as a function of time. We also characterize the shape and orientation of stomatal cell complexes in the epidermis and determine how their presence affects the local geometry of pavement epidermal cells.