Modeling the spread of Phytophthora (Q694710)

The authors study a model for the morphology and growth of the fungus-like plant pathogen Phytophthora using the example of Phytophthora plurivora. To describe the density of tips a correlated random walk concept is used, which incorporates delay in branching behavior. The delay arises because the newly split tips start to grow after some time. The first result the authors establish is that the delay primarily influences the slope of the front and therewith the way for spatial appropriation and not its velocity. This theoreticla findings supports the experimental finding of growth of Phytophthora in Petri dishes. Further, the paper discusses the question that why tips stop to grow behind the interface of the front. The experimental results about glucose concentration shows that the main cause of tip interaction and hyphal growth inhibition is the nutrient depletion. The authors presume that that this is the growth mechanism for the model considered in this work. The structure of the paper is very nice, the authors give a detailed introduction for his work in the first section and given simulation results nicely explained the theoretical findings.