Experimental and theoretical methods to approach the study of vascular patterning in the plant shoot

The plant vascular system provides transport and mechanical support functions that are essential for suitable plant growth and development. In Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis), the vascular tissues at the shoot inflorescence stems are disposed in organized vascular bundles. The vascular patterning emergence and development within the shoot inflorescence stems is under the control of plant growth regulators (De Rybel et al., Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 17:30–40, 2016; Caño-Delgado et al., Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 26:605–637, 2010). By using a combined approach of experimental methods for vascular tissues visualization and quantification together with theoretical methods through mathematical and computational modeling, we have reported that auxin transport and brassinosteroid signaling play complementary roles in the formation of the periodic vascular patterning in the shoot (Ibañes et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:13630–13635, 2009; Fàbregas et al., Plant Signal Behav 5:903–906, 2010; Fàbregas et al., PLoS Genet 11:e1005183, 2015). Here, we report the methodology for the interdisciplinary analysis of the shoot vascular patterning in the plant model Arabidopsis into a handle procedure for visualization, quantification, data analysis, and modeling implementation.