quantitative research topics about plants

23 Ideas for Science Experiments Using Plants

ThoughtCo / Hilary Allison

• Cell Biology
• Weather & Climate
• B.A., Biology, Emory University
• A.S., Nursing, Chattahoochee Technical College

Plants are tremendously crucial to life on earth. They are the foundation of food chains in almost every ecosystem. Plants also play a significant role in the environment by influencing climate and producing life-giving oxygen. Plant project studies allow us to learn about plant biology and potential usage for plants in other fields such as medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology. The following plant project ideas provide suggestions for topics that can be explored through experimentation.

Plant Project Ideas

• Do magnetic fields affect plant growth?
• Do different colors of light affect the direction of plant growth?
• Do sounds (music, noise, etc.) affect plant growth?
• Do different colors of light affect the rate of photosynthesis ?
• What are the effects of acid rain on plant growth?
• Do household detergents affect plant growth?
• Can plants conduct electricity?
• Does cigarette smoke affect plant growth?
• Does soil temperature affect root growth?
• Does caffeine affect plant growth?
• Does water salinity affect plant growth?
• Does artificial gravity affect seed germination?
• Does freezing affect seed germination?
• Does burned soil affect seed germination?
• Does seed size affect plant height?
• Does fruit size affect the number of seeds in the fruit?
• Do vitamins or fertilizers promote plant growth?
• Do fertilizers extend plant life during a drought?
• Does leaf size affect plant transpiration rates?
• Can plant spices inhibit bacterial growth ?
• Do different types of artificial light affect plant growth?
• Does soil pH affect plant growth?
• Do carnivorous plants prefer certain insects?
• 8th Grade Science Fair Project Ideas
• Plant and Soil Chemistry Science Projects
• High School Science Fair Projects
• Middle School Science Fair Project Ideas
• Animal Studies and School Project Ideas
• Environmental Science Fair Projects
• Elementary School Science Fair Projects
• College Science Fair Projects
• Chemistry Science Fair Project Ideas
• Magnetism Science Fair Projects
• 11th Grade Science Fair Projects
• 9th Grade Science Fair Projects
• Science Fair Project Ideas
• 4th Grade Science Fair Projects
• Caffeine Science Fair Projects
• Science Fair Experiment Ideas: Food and Cooking Chemistry

Thesis Helpers

Find the best tips and advice to improve your writing. Or, have a top expert write your paper.

156 Hot Agriculture Research Topics For High Scoring Thesis

Are you preparing an agriculture research paper or dissertation on agriculture but stuck trying to pick the right topic? The title is very important because it determines how easy or otherwise the process of writing the thesis will be. However, this is never easy for many students, but you should not give up because we are here to offer some assistance. This post is a comprehensive list of the best 156 topics for agriculture projects for students. We will also outline what every part of a thesis should include. Keep reading and identify an interesting agriculture topic to use for your thesis paper. You can use the topics on agriculture as they are or change them a bit to suit your project preference.

What Is Agriculture?

Also referred to as farming, agriculture is the practice of growing crops and raising livestock. Agriculture extends to processing plants and animal products, their distribution and use. It is an essential part of local and global economies because it helps to feed people and supply raw materials for different industries.

The concept of agriculture is evolving pretty fast, with modern agronomy extending to complex technology. For example, plant breeding, agrochemicals, genetics, and relationship to emerging disasters, such as global warming, are also part of agriculture. For students studying agriculture, the diversity of the subject is a good thing, but it can also make selecting the right research paper, thesis, or dissertation topics a big challenge.

How To Write A Great Thesis: What Should You Include In Each Section?

If you are working on a thesis, it is prudent to start by understanding the main structure. In some cases, your college/ university professor or the department might provide a structure for it, but if it doesn’t, here is an outline:

• Thesis Topic This is the title of your paper, and it is important to pick something that is interesting. It should also have ample material for research.
• Introduction This takes the first chapter of a thesis paper, and you should use it to set the stage for the rest of the paper. This is the place to bring out the objective of the study, justification, and research problem. You also have to bring out your thesis statement.
• Literature Review This is the second chapter of a thesis statement and is used to demonstrate that you have comprehensively looked at what other scholars have done. You have to survey different resources, from books to journals and policy papers, on the topic under consideration.
• Methodology This chapter requires you to explain the methodology that was used for the study. It is crucial because the reader wants to know how you arrived at the results. You can opt to use qualitative, quantitative, or both methods.
• Results This chapter presents the results that you got after doing your study. Make sure to use different strategies, such as tables and graphs, to make it easy for readers to understand.
• Discussion This chapter evaluates the results gathered from the study. It helps the researcher to answer the main questions that he/she outlined in the first chapter. In some cases, the discussion can be merged with the results chapter.
• Conclusion This is the summary of the research paper. It demonstrates what the thesis contributed to the field of study. It also helps to approve or nullify the thesis adopted at the start of the paper.

Interesting Agriculture Related Topics

This list includes all the interesting topics in agriculture. You can take any topic and get it free:

• Food safety: Why is it a major policy issue for agriculture on the planet today?
• European agriculture in the period 1800-1900.
• What are the main food safety issues in modern agriculture? A case study of Asia.
• Comparing agri-related problems between Latin America and the United States.
• A closer look at the freedom in the countryside and impact on agriculture: A case study of Texas, United States.
• What are the impacts of globalisation on sustainable agriculture on the planet?
• European colonisation and impact on agriculture in Asia and Africa.
• A review of the top five agriculture technologies used in Israel to increase production.
• Water saving strategies and their impacts on agriculture.
• Homeland security: How is it related to agriculture in the United States?
• The impact of good agricultural practices on the health of a community.
• What are the main benefits of biotechnology?
• The Mayan society resilience: what was the role of agriculture?

Sustainable Agricultural Research Topics For Research

The list of topics for sustainable agriculture essays has been compiled by our editors and writers. This will impress any professor. Start writing now by choosing one of these topics:

• Cover cropping and its impact on agriculture.
• Agritourism in modern agriculture.
• review of the application of agroforestry in Europe.
• Comparing the impact of traditional agricultural practices on human health.
• Comparing equity in agriculture: A case study of Asia and Africa.
• What are the humane methods employed in pest management in Europe?
• A review of water management methods used in sustainable agriculture.
• Are the current methods used in agricultural production sufficient to feed the rapidly growing population?
• A review of crop rotation and its effects in countering pests in farming.
• Using sustainable agriculture to reduce soil erosion in agricultural fields.
• Comparing the use of organic and biological pesticides in increasing agricultural productivity.
• Transforming deserts into agricultural lands: A case study of Israel.
• The importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems in raising crop productivity.
• The role of agriculture in countering the problem of climate change.

Unique Agriculture Research Topics For Students

If students want to receive a high grade, they should choose topics with a more complicated nature.This list contains a variety of unique topics that can be used. You can choose from one of these options right now:

• Why large-scale farming is shifting to organic agriculture.
• What are the implications of groundwater pollution on agriculture?
• What are the pros and cons of raising factory farm chickens?
• Is it possible to optimise food production without using organic fertilisers?
• A review of the causes of declining agricultural productivity in African fields.
• The role of small-scale farming in promoting food sufficiency.
• The best eco-strategies for improving the productivity of land in Asia.
• Emerging concerns about agricultural production.
• The importance of insurance in countering crop failure in modern agriculture.
• Comparing agricultural policies for sustainable agriculture in China and India.
• Is agricultural technology advancing rapidly enough to feed the rapidly growing population?
• Reviewing the impact of culture on agricultural production: A case study of rice farming in Bangladesh.

Fun Agricultural Topics For Your Essay

This list has all the agricultural topics you won’t find anywhere else. It contains fun ideas for essay topics on agriculture that professors may find fascinating:

• Managing farm dams to support modern agriculture: What are the best practices?
• Native Americans’ history and agriculture.
• Agricultural methods used in Abu Dhabi.
• The history of agriculture: A closer look at the American West.
• What impacts do antibiotics have on farm animals?
• Should we promote organic food to increase food production?
• Analysing the impact of fish farming on agriculture: A case study of Japan.
• Smart farming in Germany: The impact of using drones in crop management.
• Comparing the farming regulations in California and Texas.
• Economics of pig farming for country farmers in the United States.
• Using solar energy in farming to reduce carbon footprint.
• Analysing the effectiveness of standards used to confine farm animals.

Technology And Agricultural Related Topics

As you can see, technology plays a significant role in agriculture today.You can now write about any of these technology-related topics in agriculture:

• A review of technology transformation in modern agriculture.
• Why digital technology is a game changer in agriculture.
• The impact of automation in modern agriculture.
• Data analysis and biology application in modern agriculture.
• Opportunities and challenges in food processing.
• Should artificial intelligence be made mandatory in all farms?
• Advanced food processing technologies in agriculture.
• What is the future of genetic engineering of agricultural crops?
• Is fertiliser a must-have for success in farming?
• Agricultural robots offer new hope for enhanced productivity.
• Gene editing in agriculture: Is it a benefit or harmful?
• Identify and trace the history of a specific technology and its application in agriculture today.
• What transformations were prompted by COVID-19 in the agricultural sector?
• Reviewing the best practices for pest management in agriculture.
• Analysing the impacts of different standards and policies for pest management in two countries of your choice on the globe.

Easy Agriculture Research Paper Topics

You may not want to spend too much time writing the paper. You have other things to accomplish. Look at this list of topics that are easy to write about in agriculture:

• Agricultural modernization and its impacts in third world countries.
• The role of human development in agriculture today.
• The use of foreign aid and its impacts on agriculture in Mozambique.
• The effect of hydroponics in agriculture.
• Comparing agriculture in the 20th and 21st centuries.
• Is it possible to engage in farming without water?
• Livestock owners should use farming methods that will not destroy forests.
• Subsistence farming versus commercial farming.
• Comparing the pros and cons of sustainable and organic agriculture.
• Is intensive farming the same as sustainable agriculture?
• A review of the leading agricultural practices in Latin America.
• Mechanisation of agriculture in Eastern Europe: A case study of Ukraine.
• Challenges facing livestock farming in Australia.
• Looking ahead: What is the future of livestock production for protein supply?

Emerging Agriculture Essay Topics

Emerging agriculture is an important part of modern life. Why not write an essay or research paper about one of these emerging agriculture topics?

• Does agriculture help in addressing inequality in society?
• Agricultural electric tractors: Is this a good idea?
• What ways can be employed to help Africa improve its agricultural productivity?
• Is education related to productivity in small-scale farming?
• Genome editing in agriculture: Discuss the pros and cons.
• Is group affiliation important in raising productivity in Centre Europe? A case study of Ukraine.
• The use of Agri-Nutrition programs to change gender norms.
• Mega-Farms: Are they the future of agriculture?
• Changes in agriculture in the next ten years: What should we anticipate?
• A review of the application of DNA fingerprinting in agriculture.
• Global market of agricultural products: Are non-exporters locked out of foreign markets for low productivity?
• Are production technologies related to agri-environmental programs more eco-efficient?
• Can agriculture support greenhouse mitigation?

Controversial Agricultural Project For Students

Our team of experts has searched for the most controversial topics in agriculture to write a thesis on. These topics are all original, so you’re already on your way towards getting bonus points from professors. However, the process of writing is sometimes not as easy as it seems, so dissertation writers for hire will help you to solve all the problems.

• Comparing the mechanisms of US and China agricultural markets: Which is better?
• Should we ban GMO in agriculture?
• Is vivisection a good application or a necessary evil?
• Agriculture is the backbone of modern Egypt.
• Should the use of harmful chemicals in agriculture be considered biological terror?
• How the health of our planet impacts the food supply networks.
• People should buy food that is only produced using sustainable methods.
• What are the benefits of using subsidies in agriculture? A case study of the United States.
• The agrarian protests: What were the main causes and impacts?
• What impact would a policy requiring 2/3 of a country to invest in agriculture have?
• Analysing the changes in agriculture over time: Why is feeding the world population today a challenge?

Persuasive Agriculture Project Topics

If you have difficulty writing a persuasive agricultural project and don’t know where to start, we can help. Here are some topics that will convince you to do a persuasive project on agriculture:

• What is the extent of the problem of soil degradation in the US?
• Comparing the rates of soil degradation in the United States and Africa.
• Employment in the agricultural sector: Can it be a major employer as the population grows?
• The process of genetic improvement for seeds: A case study of agriculture in Germany.
• The importance of potatoes in people’s diet today.
• Comparing sweet potato production in the US to China.
• What is the impact of corn production for ethanol production on food supply chains?
• A review of sustainable grazing methods used in the United States.
• Does urban proximity help improve efficiency in agriculture?
• Does agriculture create economic spillovers for local economies?
• Analysing the use of sprinkle drones in agriculture.
• The impact of e-commerce development on agriculture.
• Reviewing the agricultural policy in Italy.
• Climate change: What does it mean for agriculture in developed nations?

Advanced Agriculture Project Topics

A more difficult topic can help you impress your professor. It can earn you bonus points. Check out the latest list of advanced agricultural project topics:

• Analysing agricultural exposure to toxic metals: The case study of arsenic.
• Identifying the main areas for reforms in agriculture in the United States.
• Are developed countries obligated to help starving countries with food?
• World trade adjustments to emerging agricultural dynamics and climate change.
• Weather tracking and impacts on agriculture.
• Pesticides ban by EU and its impacts on agriculture in Asia and Africa.
• Traditional farming methods used to feed communities in winter: A case study of Mongolia.
• Comparing the agricultural policy of the EU to that of China.
• China grew faster after shifting from an agro to an industrial-based economy: Should more countries move away from agriculture to grow?
• What methods can be used to make agriculture more profitable in Africa?
• A comprehensive comparison of migratory and non-migratory crops.
• What are the impacts of mechanical weeding on soil structure and fertility?
• A review of the best strategies for restoring lost soil fertility in agricultural farmlands: A case study of Germany.

Engaging Agriculture Related Research Topics

When it comes to agriculture’s importance, there is so much to discuss. These engaging topics can help you get started in your research on agriculture:

• Agronomy versus horticultural crops: What are the main differences?
• Analysing the impact of climate change on the food supply networks.
• Meat processing laws in Germany.
• Plant parasites and their impacts in agri-production: A case study of India.
• Milk processing laws in Brazil.
• What is the extent of post-harvest losses on farming profits?
• Agri-supply chains and local food production: What is the relationship?
• Can insects help improve agriculture instead of harming it?
• The application of terraculture in agriculture: What are the main benefits?
• Vertical indoor farms.
• Should we be worried about the declining population of bees?
• Is organic food better than standard food?
• What are the benefits of taking fresh fruits and veggies?
• The impacts of over-farming on sustainability and soil quality.

Persuasive Research Topics in Agriculture

Do you need to write a paper on agriculture? Perfect! Here are the absolute best persuasive research topics in agriculture:

• Buying coffee produced by poor farmers to support them.
• The latest advances in drip irrigation application.
• GMO corn in North America.
• Global economic crises and impact on agriculture.
• Analysis of controversies on the use of chemical fertilisers.
• What challenges are facing modern agriculture in France?
• What are the negative impacts of cattle farms?
• A closer look at the economics behind sheep farming in New Zealand.
• The changing price of energy: How important is it for the local farms in the UK?
• A review of the changing demand for quality food in Europe.
• Wages for people working in agriculture.

Work With Experts To Get High Quality Thesis Paper

Once you pick the preferred topic of research, it is time to get down and start working on your thesis paper. If writing the paper is a challenge, do not hesitate to seek thesis help from our experts. We work with ENL writers who are educated in top universities. Therefore, you can trust them to carry out comprehensive research on your paper and deliver quality work to impress your supervisor. Students who come to us for assistance give a high rating to our writers after scoring top grades or emerging top in class. Our trustworthy experts can also help with other school assignments, thesis editing, and proofreading. We have simplified the process of placing orders so that every student can get assistance quickly and affordably. You only need to navigate to the ordering page to buy a custom thesis paper online.

Make PhD experience your own

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Frontiers in Plant Science
• Plant Breeding
• Research Topics

Quantitative Approaches to Plant Breeding: Concepts, Strategies and Practical Applications

Total Downloads

Total Views and Downloads

About this Research Topic

Plant breeding is a continuously evolving field. From the discovery of Mendel’s laws of heredity to the development of gene-based markers, advances on analytical tools and emerging use of big data from trials, plant breeders have constantly utilized scientific breakthroughs to increase the rate of genetic ...

Important Note : All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Topic Editors

Topic coordinators, recent articles, submission deadlines.

Submission closed.

Participating Journals

Total views.

• Demographics

No records found

total views article views downloads topic views

Top countries

Top referring sites, about frontiers research topics.

With their unique mixes of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author.

• Open access
• Published: 25 April 2018

Quantitative study of medicinal plants used by the communities residing in Koh-e-Safaid Range, northern Pakistani-Afghan borders

• Wahid Hussain 1 ,
• Lal Badshah 1 ,
• Manzoor Ullah 2 ,
• Maroof Ali 3 ,
• Asghar Ali 4 &
• Farrukh Hussain 5  

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine volume  14 , Article number:  30 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

59k Accesses

38 Citations

1 Altmetric

Metrics details

The residents of remote areas mostly depend on folk knowledge of medicinal plants to cure different ailments. The present study was carried out to document and analyze traditional use regarding the medicinal plants among communities residing in Koh-e-Safaid Range northern Pakistani-Afghan border.

A purposive sampling method was used for the selection of informants, and information regarding the ethnomedicinal use of plants was collected through semi-structured interviews. The collected data was analyzed through quantitative indices viz. relative frequency citation, use value, and family use value. The conservation status of medicinal plants was enumerated with the help of International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List Categories and Criteria (2001). Plant samples were deposited at the Herbarium of Botany Department, University of Peshawar for future reference.

One hundred eight informants including 72 male and 36 female were interviewed. The informants provided information about 92 plants species used in the treatment of 53 ailments. The informant reported maximum number of species used for the treatment of diabetes (16 species), followed by carminatives (12 species), laxatives (11 species), antiseptics (11 species), for cough (10 species), to treat hepatitis (9 species), for curing diarrhea (7 species), and to cure ulcers (7 species), etc. Decoction (37 species, i.e., 40%) was the common method of recipe preparation. Most familiar medicinal plants were Withania coagulans , Caralluma tuberculata , and Artemisia absinthium with relative frequency (0.96), (0.90), and (0.86), respectively. The relative importance of Withania coagulans was highest (1.63) followed by Artemisia absinthium (1.34), Caralluma tuberculata (1.20), Cassia fistula (1.10), Thymus linearis (1.06), etc. This study allows identification of novel uses of plants. Abies pindrow , Artemisia scoparia , Nannorrhops ritchiana , Salvia reflexa , and Vincetoxicum cardiostephanum have not been reported previously for their medicinal importance. The study also highlights many medicinal plants used to treat chronic metabolic conditions in patients with diabetes.

Conclusions

The folk knowledge of medicinal plants species of Koh-e-Safaid Range was unexplored. We, for the first time, conducted this quantitative study in the area to document medicinal plants uses, to preserve traditional knowledge, and also to motivate the local residents against the vanishing wealth of traditional knowledge of medicinal flora. The vast use of medicinal plants reported shows the significance of traditional herbal preparations among tribal people of the area for their health care. Knowledge about the medicinal use of plants is rapidly disappearing in the area as a new generation is unwilling to take interest in medicinal plant use, and the knowledgeable persons keep their knowledge a secret. Thus, the indigenous use of plants needs conservational strategies and further investigation for better utilization of natural resources.

The residents of remote areas mostly depend on folk knowledge of medicinal plants to cure different ailments. Plants not only provide food, shelter, fodder, drugs, timber, and fuel wood, but also provide different other services such as regulating different air gases, water recycling, and control of different soil erosion. Hence, phytodiversity is required to fulfill several human daily livelihood needs. Millions of people in developing countries commonly derive their income from different wild plant products [ 1 ]. Ethnomedicinal plants have been extensively applied in traditional medicine systems to treat various ailments [ 2 ]. This relationship goes back to the Neanderthal man who used plants as a healing agent. In spite of their ancient nature, international community has recognized that many indigenous communities depend on biological resources including medicinal plants [ 3 ]. About 80% of the populations in developing countries rely on medicinal plants to treat diseases, maintaining and improving the lives of their generation [ 4 , 5 ]. The people, in most parts of the world particularly in rural areas, rely on traditional medicinal plants’ remedies due to easy availability, cultural acceptability, and poor economic conditions. Out of the total 422,000 known angiosperms, more than 50,000 are used for medicinal purposes [ 6 ]. Some 75% of the herbal drugs have been developed through research on traditional medicinal plants, and 25% of prescribed drugs belong to higher plants [ 7 ]. Traditional knowledge has a long historical cultural heritage and rich natural resources that have accumulated in the indigenous communities through oral and discipleship practices [ 8 ]. Traditional indigenous knowledge is important in the formulation of herbal remedies and isolates bioactive constituents which are a precursor for semisynthetic drugs. It is the most successful criterion for the development of novelties in drugs [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Traditional knowledge can also contribute to conserve and sustain the use of biological diversity. However, traditional knowledge, especially herbal health care system, has declined in remote communities and in younger generations as a result of a shift in attitude and ongoing socio-economic changes [ 12 ]. The human communities are facing health and socio-economic problems due to changing environmental conditions and socio-economic status [ 13 ]. The tribal people have rich unwritten traditional medicinal knowledge. It rests with elders and transfers to younger orally. With rapid economic development and oral transmitted nature of traditional knowledge, there is an urgent need to systematically document traditional medicinal knowledge from these communities confined in rural and tribal areas of the world including Pakistan. The Koh-e-Safaid Range is one of the remote tribal areas of Pakistan having unique and century-old ethnic characteristics. A single hospital with limited insufficient health facilities is out of reach for most inhabitants. Nature has gifted the area with rich diversity of medicinal plants. The current advancement in the use of synthetic medicines has severely affected the indigenous health care system through the use of medicinal traditional practices in the area. The young generation has lost interest in using medicinal plants, and they are reluctant to practice traditional health care system that is one of the causes of the decline in traditional knowledge system. Quantitative approaches can explain and analyze the variables quantitatively. In such approach, authentic information can be used for conservation and development of existing resources. Therefore, the present research was conducted in the area to document medicinal uses of local plants with their relative importance, to record information for future investigation and discovery of novelty in drug use, and to educate the locals about the declining wealth of traditional and medicinal flora from the area.

Ethnographic and socio-economic background of the study area

Koh-e-Safaid Range is a tribal territory banding Pakistan with Afghanistan in Kurram Agency. It lies between 33° 20′ to 34° 10′ N latitudes and 69° 50′ to 70° 50′ E longitudes (Fig.  1 ).This area is federally administered by the Government of Pakistan. The Agency is surrounded on the east by Orakzai and Khyber agencies, in the southeast by Hangu district, and in the south by North Waziristan Agency and Nangarhar and Pukthia of Afghanistan lies on its west. The highest range of Koh-e-Safaid is Sikaram peak with, 4728 m height. The Agency is well-populated with many small fortified villages receiving irrigation water from Kurram River that flows through it. The weather of the Agency is mostly pleasant in summer; however, in winters, freezing temperature is experienced, and sometimes falls to − 10 °C. The weather charts website “Climate-Charts” ranked it as the fourth coldest location in Pakistan. Autumn and winter are usually dry seasons while summer and spring receive much of the precipitation. The total population of the Agency according to the 2017 censuses report is 253,478. Turi, Bangash, Sayed, Maqbal, Mangel, Khushi, Hazara, Kharote, and Jaji are the major tribes in the research area. The joint family system is practiced in the area. Most of the marriages are held within the tribe; however, there is no ban on the marriages outside the tribe. Marriage functions are communal whereby all relatives, friends, and village people participate with songs, music, and dances male and female separately. The death and funeral ceremonies are jointly attended by the friends and relatives. The people of the area follow Jirga to resolve their social and administrative problems. This is one of the most active and strong social institutions in the area. Economically, most people in the area are poor and earning their livelihoods by menial jobs. The professional includes farmers, pastoralists, shopkeepers, horticulturists, local health healers, wood sellers, and government servants. In the adjoining areas of the city, pastorals keep domestic animals and are considered a better source of income.

Map of the study area and area location in Pakistan

Sampling method

The study was conducted through purposive sampling by informants’ selection method. The selection of informants was primary based on the ethnomedicinal plants and their willingness to share the information. The selection criteria include people who prescribe recipes for treatment; people involved in buying, collection, or cultivation of plants; elder members of above 60 years age; and young literate members. The participants were traditional healers, plant collectors, farmers, traders, and selected knowledgeable elders above 60 years age and young ones. The interviews were conducted in local Pashto language in the local dialect. The informants were involved in the gathering of data with a consent of village tribe chieftains called Maliks.

Data collection

Semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted for the collection of ethnomedicinal information from April 2015 to August 2017. Informants from 19 localities were interviewed including Sultan, Malikhail, Daal, Mali kali, Alam Sher, Kirman, Zeran, Malana, Luqman Khail, Shalozan, Pewar, Teri Mangal, Bughdi, Burki, Kharlachi, Shingak, Nastikot, Karakhila, and Parachinar city (Fig.  1 ). The objectives of this study were thoroughly explained to all the informants before the interview [ 14 ]. Data about medicinal plants and informants including local names of plants, preparation of recipes, storage of plant parts, informant age, occupation, and education were collected during face-to-face interviews. A questionnaire was set with the following information: informant bio-data, medicinal plant use, plant parts used and modes of preparation, and administration of the remedies. Plants were confirmed through repeated group discussion with informants [ 15 , 16 ]. For the identification of plants, informants were requested for transect walks in the field to locate the cited plant for confirmation.

Collection and identification of medicinal plants

The medicinal plants used in traditional treatment of ailments in the study area were collected with the help local knowledgeable persons, traditional healers, and botanists. The plants were pressed, dried, and mounted on herbarium sheet. The field identification was confirmed by a taxonomist in the Herbarium Department of Botany, University of Peshawar. The voucher specimens of all species were numbered and deposited in the Herbarium of Peshawar University (Fig.  2 ).

Landscape of Kurram Valley ( a winter, b summer). c , d Traditional healers selling herbal drugs on footpath. e Trader crushing Artemisia absinthium for marketing. f Principal author in the field during data collection. g , h Plant collectors in subalpine zone. i Lilium polyphyllum rare species distributed in subalpine zone. j Ziziphora tenuior endangered species of subtropical zone

Data analysis

The information about ethnomedicinal uses of plants and informants included in questionnaires such as botanical name, local name, family name, parts used, mode of preparation, use reports, frequency of citation, relative importance, and voucher number were tabulated for all reported plant species. Informants’ use reports for various ailments and frequency of citation were calculated for each species. The relative importance of species was calculated according to use-value formula (UV = UVi/Ni) [ 17 ], where “UVi” is the number of citations for species across all informants and “Ni” the number of informants. The citation probability of each medicinal plant across all informants was equal to avoid researchers’ biasness. Family use value was calculated using the formula FUV = UVs/Ns, where “UVs” represent the sum of use values of species falling within family, and Ns represents the number of species reported for the family. The conservation status of wild medicinal plants species was enumerated by applying International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criterion (2001) [ 18 ].

Informants’ knowledge about medicinal plants and their demography

A total of 108 including 72 male and 36 female informants were interviewed from 19 locations. The three groups of male respondents were falling in the age groups of 21 to 40, 41 to 60, and 61 to 80 years having the numbers of 19, 19, and 34, respectively. Among the female respondents, 10 aged 21 to 40, 14 aged 41 to 60, and 12 aged 61 to 80 years. Among the informants, 15 males were illiterate, 34 were matriculate, 13 were intermediate, and 10 were graduates. Among the females, 19 were illiterate, 16 were matriculate, and only 1 was graduate (Table  1 ). Informants were shepherd, healers, plant collectors, gardeners, and farmers. Twenty-eight informants of above 60 years age, living a retired life, were also interviewed. It was found that males were more knowledgeable than females. Furthermore, health healers were more knowledgeable.

Diversity of medicinal plants

A total of 92 medicinal species including 91vascular plant species belonging to 50 families and 1 mushroom Morchella of Ascomycetes of family Morchellaceae were reported (Table  2 ) . Asteraceae had eight species followed by seven species of Lamiaceae and Rosaceae. Three species were contributed by each of Moraceae, Asclepiadaceae, Polygonaceae, Brassicaceae, Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, and Liliaceae. Of the remaining eight families, namely, Poaceae, Pinaceae, Zingiberaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Plantaginaceae, Apiaceae, Fabaceae, and Zygophyllaceae, each one contributed two species [ 19 , 20 ]. Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, and Rosaceae were also reported with a high number of plants used for medicinal purposes. The reported plants were collected both from the wild (86.9%) and cultivated (13.1%) sources. However, greater percentage of medicinal plants from wild sources indicated higher species’ diversity in the study area. The 62 herbs species, 16 tree, 12 shrubs, and 2 undershrubs species were used in medicinal preparation for remedies.

Plant parts used in preparation of remedies

The plant parts used in the preparation of remedies were root, rhizome, bulbils, stem, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, bark, resin, and latex. The relative use of these plant parts is shown in (Fig.  3 ). Fruits were frequently used plant part (26 species), followed by leaves (23 species) and remaining parts (21 species).

Plant parts used in the formulation of remedies

Preparation and mode of administration of remedies

The collection of data for the preparation of remedies from medicinal plants is extremely important. Such information is essential for identification of active ingredients and intake of relevant amount of drug. The present research observed seven methods for preparing recipes. It included decoction, powder, juice, infusions, roast, and ash methods (Fig.  4 ). The 37 species (40%) were most frequently used for the preparation of remedies. A plant part is boiled while infusion is obtained by soaking plant material in cold or hot water overnight. Eleven species (14%) are in powdered form, 11species (14%) in vegetable form, 7 species (9%) in juice form, 7 species (9%) in infusions form, 3 species (4%) in roasted form, and 1 species (2%) in ash form were used. Twenty-seven plant parts were used directly. It included wild fruits that were consumed for their nutritional and medicinal purpose. The most frequently used mode of administration of remedies was oral intake practice of 74 species (79%) followed by both orally and topically practice of 11 species (12%) and topically of 8 species (9%) (Fig.  5 ).

Different modes of drug formulation

Route of administration of drugs

Medicinal plants use categories

The inhabitants used medicinal plants in the treatment of 53 health disorders. The important disorders were cancer, diabetic, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, malaria, and ulcer (Table.  3 ). These disorders were classified into 17 categories. Among the ailments, most plants were used for the treatment of digestive problems mainly as carminative (12 species), diarrhea (11 species), laxative (11 species), ulcer (7 species), appetizer (5 species), colic pain (4 species), and anthelmintic (4 species). Such higher use of plants for the treatment of digestive problems had been reported in ethnobotanical studies conducted in another tribal area of Pakistan [ 21 ]. The other categories (18 species) were used to treat respiratory disorders, followed by endocrine disorders (16 species); antiseptic and anti-inflammatory (15 species); circulatory system disorders (15 species); integumentary problems (15 species); antipyretic, refrigerant, and analgesic (9 species); and hepatic disorders (9 species). However, among the ailments, the highest number of plants were used in the treatment of diabetes (16 species), followed by antiseptic (11 species), cough (10 species), hepatitis (9 species), and ulcer (7 species). Among the remaining species, the informants reported three and two species used against malaria and cancer, respectively (Table  3 ).

Quantitative appraisal of ethnomedicinal use

Based on the quantitative indices, the analyzed data showed that few plants were cited by the majority of the informants for their medicinal value. Seventeen plant species with the highest citation frequency are shown in (Fig.  6 ). The highest citation frequency was calculated for Withania coagulans (0.96), followed by Caralluma tuberculata (0.90), and Artemisia absanthium (0.86). The high values of these species indicated that most of the informants were familiar with their medicinal value. However, the familiarity of these three plants could be linked to their collection for economic purposes [ 22 ]. Withania coagulans (1.63), Artemisia absinthium (1.34), Caralluma tuberculata (1.20), Cassia fistula (1.10), and Thymus linearis (1.06) were reported having the highest used values for medicinal purposes (Fig.  7 ). All these species were used for the cure of three or more diseases. The powdered fruit of Withania coagulans is used for the cure of stomach pain, constipation, diabetes, and ulcer. The next highest use value was calculated for Artemisia absinthium with five medical indications as diabetes, malaria, fever, blood pressure, and urologic problems. Among the remaining three plants, Caralluma tuberculata is used for diabetes, cancer, and stomachic problems, and as blood purifier; Cassia fistula for colic pain and stomach pain and as a carminative agent; and Thymus linearis for cough and as carminative and appetizer. Lowest use value was calculated for Rununculus muricatus (0.04) with next three species having same lowest use value: Abies pindrow (0.05), Lepidium virginicum (0.05), and Oxalis corniculata (0.05). Highest family use value was calculated for Juglandaceae (0.86), followed by Cannabaceae (0.78), Apiaceae (0.75), Asclepiadaceae (0.71), Fumariaceae (0.71), Berberidaceae (0.70), Fabaceae (0.67), Punicaceae (0.65), Solanaceae (0.64), and Asteraceae (0.61). This is the first study that presents a quantitative value of medicinal plants used in the investigated area.

Medicinal plants with highest relative frequency citation

Medicinal plants with highest relative importance

Conservation status of the medicinal flora

Plant preservation means the study of plant declination, their causes, and techniques to protect rare and scarce plants. Plant conservation is a fairly new field that emphasizes the conservation of biodiversity and whole ecosystems as opposed to the conservation of individual species [ 23 ]. The ex situ conservation must be encouraged for the protection of medicinal plants [ 24 ]. In the present case, the area under study is under tremendous anthropogenic pressure as well. Therefore, ex situ conservation of endangered species is recommended. The woody plants, cut down for miscellaneous purposes, are facing conservational problems. Sayer et al. [ 25 ] reported that large investments are being made in the establishment of tree plantation on degraded area in Asia [ 25 ]. Alam and Ali stressed that proper conservation studies are almost negligible in Pakistan [ 26 ]. Same is the case with the study area as no project has been initiated for the conservation of forest or vegetation so far. Anthropogenic activities, small size population, distribution in limited area, and specificity of habitat were observed as the chief threats to endangered species.

According to IUCN Red List Criteria (2001) [ 18 ] conservation status of 80 wild medicinal species have been assessed based on availability, collection status, growth status, and their parts used. The remaining 12 medicinal plants were cultivated species. Of these, 7 (8.7%) species are endangered, 34 (42.5%) species are vulnerable, 29 (36.2%) species are rare, 9 (11.2%) species are infrequent, and only 1 (1.3%) species is dominant. The endangered species were Caralluma tuberculata , Morchella esculenta , Rheum speciforme , Tanacetum artemisioides , Vincetoxicum cardiostephanum , Withania coagulans , and Polygonatum verticillatum.

Traditional medicines are a vital and often underestimated part of health care. Nowadays, it is practiced in almost every country of the world. Its demand is currently increasing rapidly in the form of alternative medicine [ 20 ]. Ethnomedicinal plants have been widely applied in traditional medicine systems to treat various ailments. About 80% of the populations in developing countries rely on medicinal plants to treat diseases, maintaining and improving the lives of their generation [ 19 ]. Traditional knowledge has a long historical cultural heritage and rich natural resources that has accumulated in the indigenous communities through oral and discipleship practices [ 8 ]. Traditional indigenous knowledge is important in the formulation of herbal remedies and isolates bioactive constituents which are a precursor for semisynthetic drugs. It is the most successful criterion for the development of novelties in drugs [ 11 ]. A total of 92 medicinal species including 91 vascular plant species belonging to 50 families and 1 mushroom Morchella of Ascomycetes of family Morchellaceae were reported (Table  2 ) . The current study reveals that the family Asteraceae represents eight species followed by seven species of Lamiaceae and Rosaceae each which showed a higher number of medicinal plants. Three species were contributed by each of Moraceae, Asclepiadaceae, Polygonaceae, Brassicaceae, Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, and Amaryllidaceae. While the remaining eight families, namely, Poaceae, Pinaceae, Zingiberaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Plantaginaceae, Apiaceae, Fabaceae, and Zygophylaceae, contributed two species each. Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, and Rosaceae were also reported with a high number of plants used for medicinal purposes. Indigenous use of medicinal plants in the communities residing in Koh-e-Safid Range of Pakistan is evident. Traditional health healers are important to fulfill the basic health needs of the economically poor people of the area. The high dependency on traditional healers is due to limited and inaccessible health facilities. Most people either take recipes from local healers or select wild medicinal plants prescribed by them. Some elders also knew how to preserve medicinal plant parts for future use. Traditional knowledge of medicinal plants is declining in the area due to lack of interest in the young generation to acquire this traditional treasure. Furthermore, most traditional health healers and knowledgeable elders hesitate to disseminate their recipes. Therefore, traditional knowledge in the area is diminishing as aged persons are passing away. Vernacular names of plants are the roots of ethnomedicinal diversity knowledge [ 27 ]. They can clear the ambiguity in the identification of medicinal plants within an area. It also helps in the preservation of indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants. The medicinal plants were mostly reported with one specific vernacular name in the investigated area. While Rosa moschata and Rosa webbiana were known by same single vernacular name as Jangle Gulab. Few species were known by two vernacular names: Curcuma longa as Korkaman or Hildi, Ficus carica as Togh or Anzer, Fumaria indica as Chamtara or Chaptara, Marrubium vulgare as Dorshol or Butaka, Solanum nigrum as Bartang or Kharsobay, Teucrium stocksianum as Harboty or Gulbahar, and Thymus linearis as Paney or Mawory. The informants also mentioned different vernacular names for species even belonging to single genus; Plantago lanceolata as Chamchapan or Ghuyezaba and Plantago major as Ghazaki or Palisepary. Majority of the species commonly had a single name. However, local dialects varied in few species, i. e., Withania coagulans was known by three names: Hapyanaga, Hafyanga, and Shapynga, Caralluma tuberculata as Pamenny or Pawanky, Foeniculum vulgare as Koglany or Khoglany, and Viola canescens was called as Banafsha or Balamsha. The species with high use value need conservation for maintaining biodiversity in the study area. However, in the present case, no project or programs for the conservation of forest or vegetation are operating. Grazing and unsustainable medicinal uses were observed as the chief hazard to highly medicinal plant species. The higher use of herbs can be attributed to their abundance, diversity, and therapeutic potentials as antidiabetic, antimalarial, antipyretic, antiulcerogenic, antipyretic, blood purifier, and emollient and for blood pressure, hepatitis, stomach pain, and itching. Aloe vera , cultivated for ornamental purpose, is used as wound healing agent. Among the plant parts, the higher use of fruit may relate to its nutritional value. The aerial parts of the herbaceous plants were mostly collected in abundance and frequently used for medicinal purposes. In many recipes, more than one part was used. The utilization of roots, rhizomes, and the whole plant is the main threat in the regeneration of the medicinal plants [ 28 ]. In the current study, decoction was found to be the main method of remedy preparation as reported in the ethnopharmacological studies from other parts [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Fortunately, we collected important information like preparation of remedies and their mode of administration for all the reported plants. However, the therapeutic potential of few plants are connected to their utilization method. A roasted bulb of Allium cepa is wrapped on the spine-containing wound to release the spine. The leaf of Aloe vera containing viscous juice is scratched and wrapped on a wound. The latex of Calotropis procera is first mixed with flour and then topically applied on the skin for wound healing. Infusion of Cassia fistula fruit’s inner septa is prepared for stomach pain and carminative and colic pain in children. The fruit of Citrullus colocynthis boiled in water is orally taken for the treatment of diabetes. Grains of Hordeum vulgare are kept in water for a day, and its extraction is taken for the treatment of diabetes. The decoction of Seriphidium kurramensis shoots are used as anti-anthelmintic and antimalaria. The leaves of Juglans regia are locally used for cleaning the teeth and to prevent them from decaying. Furthermore, its fruit is used as brain tonic, and its roasted form is useful in the treatment of dysentery. The roots of Pinus wallichiana are cut into small pieces and put into the pot. The cut pieces are boiled, and the extracted liquid is poured into the container. One drop of the extracted liquid is mixed with one glass of milk and taken orally once a day as blood purifier. An infusion of Thymus linearis aerial parts is prepared like hot tea and is drunk for cough and as appetizer and carminative. A decoction of Zingiber officinale rhizome is drunk at night time for relief of cough. Medicinal plants are still practiced in tribal and rural areas as they are considered as main therapeutic agents in maintaining better health. Such practices have been described in the ethnobotanical studies conducted across Pakistan. The current study reveals several plant species with more than one medical use including Artemisia absanthium , Cichorium intybus , Fumaria indica , Punica granatum , Tanacetum artemisioides , Teucrium stocksianum , and Withania coagulans . Their medicinal importance can be validated from indigenous studies conducted in various parts of the country. Amaranthus viridis leaf extract is an emollient and is used for curing cough and asthma as well [ 32 ]. Artemisia absanthium is used for the treatment of malaria and diabetes [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Cichorium intybus is used against diabetes, malaria, and gastric ulcer, and it is also used as digestive and laxative agent [ 28 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. Leaves of Cannabis sativa are used as bandage for wound healing; powdered leaves as anodyne, sedative, tonic, and narcotic; and juice added with milk and nuts as a cold drink [ 42 ]. Whole plant of Fumaria indica [ 36 ] and Tanacetum artemisioides [ 43 ] is used for treating constipation and diabetes, respectively. Dried rind powder and fruit extract of Punica granatum are taken orally for the treatment of anemia, diarrhea, dysentery, and diabetes [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. A decoction of aerial parts of Teucrium stocksianum is used for curing diabetes [ 29 , 48 ]. Withania coagulans is known worldwide [ 38 , 49 ] as a medicinal plant, whose fruit decoction is best remedy for skin diseases and diabetes. Its seeds are used against digestive problems, gastritis, diabetes, and constipation [ 21 , 28 , 50 ]. Our results are in line with the traditional uses of plants in the neighboring counties [ 8 ]. For example, Fumaria indica is used as blood purifier, and Hordeum vulgare grains decoction for diabetes; Juglans regia bark for toothaches and scouring teeth; Mangifera indica seed decoction for diarrhea; Solanum nigrum extract for jaundice; and Solanum surattense fruit decoction for cough have been documented in the study (40) . Such agreements strengthen our results and provide good opportunity to evaluate therapeutic potential of the reported plants. Three plants species Adiantum capillus-veneris , Malva parviflora , and Peganum harmala have been documented for their medicinal use in the ethnobotanical study [ 51 ]. According to this, the decoction of the aerial parts of Adiantum capillus-veneris is used for the treatment of asthma and dyspnea. Malva parviflora root and flower are used for stomach ulcers. Peganum harmala fruit powder and decoction are used for toothache, gynecological infections, and menstruation. The dried leaves of Artemisia absanthium is used to cure stomach pain and intestinal worm while an inflorescence paste prepared from its fresh leaves is used as wound healing agent and antidiabetic [ 52 , 53 ]. The bulb of Allium sativum is used in rheumatism while its seed vessel mixed with hot milk is useful for the prevention of tuberculosis and high blood pressure. The fruit bark of Punica granatum is used in herbal mixture for intestinal problems [ 54 ]. Avena sativa decoction is used for skin diseases including eczema, wounds, irritation, inflammation, erythema, burns, itching, and sunburn [ 55 ]. Foeniculum vulgare and Lepidium sativum are used for the treatment of diabetes and renal diseases [ 53 ]. Verbascum thapsus leaves and flowers can be used to reduce mucous formation and stimulate the coughing up of phlegm. Externally, it is used as a good emollient and wound healer. Leaves of Thymus linearis are effective against whooping cough, asthma, and round worms and are an antiseptic agent [ 21 ]. Berberis lycium wood decoction with sugar is the best treatment for jaundice. Chenopodium album has anthelmintic, diuretic, and laxative properties, and its root decoction is effective against jaundice. The whole plant decoction of Fumaria indica is used for blood purification. Dried leaves and flowers of Mentha longifolia are used as a remedy for jaundice, fever, asthma, and high blood pressure [ 36 ]. Morus alba fruit is used to treat constipation and cough [ 42 ]. Oxalis corniculata roots are anthelmintic, and powder of Chenopodium album is used for headache and seminal weakness [ 47 ]. Boiled leaves of Cichorium intybus are used for stomachic pain and laxative while boiled leaves of Plantago major are used against gastralgia [ 56 ]. Viola canescens flower is used as a purgative [ 32 ]. The above ethnomedicinal information confirms the therapeutic importance of the reported plants. The reported plant species show biological activities which suggest their therapeutic uses. The aqueous extract of Allium sativum has been studied for its lipid lowering ability and was found to be effective at the amount of 200 mg/kg of body weight. It also has significant antioxidant effect and normalizes the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase in the liver [ 57 ]. An extract of Artemisia absanthium antinociception in mice has been found and was linked to cholinergic, serotonergic, dopaminergic, and opioidergic system [ 58 ]. The ethanolic extract of Artemisia absanthium at a dose of 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight has reduced blood glucose to significant level [ 59 ]. The hepatoprotective activity of crude extract of aerial parts of Artemisia scoparia was investigated against experimentally produced hepatic damage through carbon tetrachloride. The experimental data showed that crude extract of Artemisia scoparia is hepatoprotective [ 60 ]. Ethanolic and aqueous extracts from Asparagus exhibited strong hypolipidemic and hepatoprotective action when administered at a daily dose of 200 mg/kg for 8 weeks in hyperlipidemic mice [ 61 , 62 ]. The extract of Calotropis procera was evaluated for the antiulcerogenic activity by using different in vivo ulcer in pyloric-ligated rats, and significant protection was observed in histamine-induced duodenal ulcers in guinea pigs [ 63 ]. Cannabidiol of Cannabis sativa was found as anxiolytic, antipsychotic, and schizophrenic agent [ 64 ]. Caralluma tuberculata methanolic extract of aerial parts (500 mg/kg) in fasting blood glucose level in hyperglycemic condition decreased up to 54% at fourth week with concomitant increase in plasma insulin by 206.8% [ 65 ]. The aqueous and methanol crude extract of Celtis australis , traditionally used in Indian system of medicine, was screened for its antibacterial activity [ 66 ]. Cichorium intybus L. whole plant 80% ethanolic extract a percent change in serum glucose has been observed after 30 min in rats administrated with vehicle, 125, 250, and 500 mg notified as 52.1, 25.2, 39, and 30.9%, respectively [ 67 ]. Citrullus colocynthis fruit, pulp, leaves, and root have significantly decreased blood glucose level and restored beta cells [ 30 , 68 , 69 , 70 ]. The two new aromatic esters horizontoates A and B and one new sphingolipid C were isolated from Cotoneaster horizontalis . The compounds A and B showed significant inhibitory effects on acetylcholinesterase and butylcholinesterase in a dose-dependent manner [ 71 ]. The alkaloids found in Datura stramonium are organic esters used clinically as anticholinergic agents [ 72 ]. The methanolic extract of Momordica charantia fruits on gastric and duodenal ulcers was evaluated in pylorus-ligated rats; the extract showed significant decrease in ulcer index [ 73 ]. Antifungal activity of Nannorrhops ritchiana was investigated against fungal strains Aspergillus flavus , Trichophyton longifusis , Trichophyton mentagrophytes , Aspergillus flavus , and Microsporum canis were found susceptible to the extracts with percentage inhibition of 70–80% [ 74 ]. The inhibitory effects of Olea ferruginea crude leaf extract on bacterial and fungal pathogens have been evaluated [ 75 ]. The aqueous extract of Plantago lanceolata showed that higher doses provide an overall better protection against gastro-duodenal ulcers [ 76 ]. The oral and intraperitoneal management of extracts reduced the gastric acidity in pylorus-ligated mice [ 77 ]. The antiulcer effect of Solanum nigrum fruit extract on cold restraint stress, indomethacin, pyloric ligation, and ethanol-induced gastric ulcer models and ulcer healing activity on acetic acid-induced ulcer model in rats [ 78 , 79 ]. The antifungal activity (17.62 mm) of Viola canescens acetone extract 1000 mg/ml against Fusarium oxysporum has been observed [ 80 ]. Leaf methanolic extract of Xanthium strumarium has inhibited eight pathogenic bacteria at a concentration of 50 and 100 mg/ml [ 81 ]. Aqueous extract of the fruits of Withania coagulans in streptozotocin-induced rats at dose of 1 g/kg for 7 days has shown significant decrease ( p  < 0.01) in the blood glucose level (52%), triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low density lipoprotein and very significant increase ( p  < 0.01) in high density lipoprotein level [ 31 ]. This shows that further investigation on the reported ethnomedicinal plants can lead to the discovery of novel agents with therapeutic properties.

In the current study, conservation status of 80 medicinal species was reported which was growing wild in the area. The information was collected and recorded for different conservation attributes by following International Union for Conservation and Nature (2001) [ 18 ]. It was reported that seven species (8.7%) were endangered due to the much collection, anthropogenic activities, adverse climatic conditions, small size population and distribution in limited area, specificity of habitat, and over grazing in the research area. However, the below-mentioned species were found to be endangered: Caralluma tuberculata , Morchella esculenta , Rheum speciforme , Tanacetum artemisioides , Vincetoxicum cardiostephanum , Withania coagulans , and Polygonatum verticillatum . Unsustainable use and lack of suitable habitat have affected their regeneration and pushed them to endangered category. Traditional knowledge can also contribute to conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity [ 19 , 20 ].

Novelty and future prospects

Ethnomedicinal literature research indicated that five plant species, Abies pindrow , Artemisia scoparia , Nannorrhops ritchiana , Salvia reflexa , and Vincetoxicum cardiostephanum , have not been reported previously for their medicinal importance from this area. The newly documented uses of these plants were Abies pindrow and Salvia reflexa (antidiabetic), Artemisia scoparia (anticancer), Nannorrhops ritchiana (laxative), and Vincetoxicum cardiostephanum (chest problems). Adiantum capillus-veneris is reported for the first time for its use in the treatment of skin problems. These plant species can be further screened for therapeutic agents and their pharmacological activities in search of novel drugs. The study also highlights 16 species of antidiabetic plants Caralluma tuberculata , Momordica charantia , Marrubium vulgare , Artemisia scoparia , Melia azedarach , Salvia reflexa , Citrullus colocynthis , Tanacetum artemisioides , Quercus baloot , Olea ferruginea , Cichorium intybus , Artemisia absinthium , Hordeum vulgare , Teucrium stocksianum , Withania coagulans , and Abies pindrow . Except sole paper from District Attack, Pakistan [ 28 ], such a high number of antidiabetic plants have not been reported previously from any part of Pakistan in the ethnobotanical studies.

Traditional knowledge about medicinal plants and preparation of plant-based remedies is still common in tribal area of Koh-e-Safaid Range. People due to closeness to medicinal plants and inaccessible health facilities still rely on indigenous traditional knowledge of plants. The role of traditional healers in the area is observable in primary health care. The locals used medicinal plants in treatment of important disorders such as cancer, diabetes, hepatitis, malaria, and ulcer. The analyzed data may provide opportunities for extraction of new bioactive constituents and to develop herbal remedies. The study also confirmed that the communities residing in the area have not struggled for conservation of this traditional treasure of indigenous knowledge and medicinal plants. Medicinal plant diversity in the remote and backward area of Koh-e-Safaid Range has great role in maintaining better health conditions of local communities. Therefore, conservation strategies should be adopted for the protection of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge in the study area to sustain them in the future.

Abbreviations

Family use value

International Union for Conservation of Nature

The number of informants

Represent the number of species reported for the family

The number of citations for a species across all informants

Represent sum of use values of species falling within family

Maroyi A. Diversity of use and local knowledge of wild and cultivated plants in the Eastern Cape province. South Africa J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2017;13:43.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

El-Seedi HR, Burman R, Mansour A, Turki Z, Boulos L, Gullbo J. The traditional medical uses and cytotoxic activities of sixty-one Egyptian plants: discovery of an active cardiac glycoside from Urginea maritima. J Ethnopharmacol. 2013;145:746–57.

Akerele O. Nature’s medicinal bounty: don’t throw it away. 1993.

Google Scholar  

Calixto JB. Twenty-five years of research on medicinal plants in Latin America: a personal view. J Ethnopharmacol. 2005;100:131–4.

Health WHOR. Managing complications in pregnancy and childbirth: a guide for midwives and doctors: World Health Organization; 2003.

Hamilton AC. Medicinal plants, conservation and livelihoods. Biodivers Conserv. 2004;13:1477–517.

Article   Google Scholar  

Wang M-Y, West BJ, Jensen CJ, Nowicki D, Su C, Palu AK. Morinda citrifolia (Noni): a literature review and recent advances in noni research. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2002;23:1127–41.

CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Ouelbani R, Bensari S, Mouas TN, Khelifi D. Ethnobotanical investigations on plants used in folk medicine in the regions of Constantine and Mila (north-east of Algeria). J Ethnopharmacol. 2016;194:196–218.

Farnsworth NR. The role of ethnopharmacology in drug development. Bioact Compd from plants. 1990;154:2–21.

CAS   Google Scholar  

Cox PA, Balick MJ. The ethnobotanical approach to drug discovery. Sci Am. 1994;6:82–7.

Fabricant DS, Farnsworth NR. The value of plants used in traditional medicine for drug discovery. Environ Health Perspect. 2001;109:69.

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Kala CP. Current status of medicinal plants used by traditional Vaidyas in Uttaranchal state of India. 2005.

Abbas Z, Khan SM, Alam J, Khan SW, Abbasi AM. Medicinal plants used by inhabitants of the Shigar Valley, Baltistan region of Karakorum range-Pakistan. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2017;13:53.

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Cunningham AB. Applied ethnobotany: people, wild plant use and conservation. London: Earthscan. Ersity and sustaining local livelihood. Annu Rev Environ Resour. 2001;30:219–52.

Martin GJ. Ethnobotany: a people and plants conservation manual. London: Chapman and Hall CrossRef Google Scholar; 1995.

Book   Google Scholar  

Maundu P. Methodology for collecting and sharing indigenous knowledge: a case study. Indig Knowl Dev Monit. 1995;3:3–5.

Phillips O, Gentry AH, Reynel C, Wilkin P, Galvez DB. Quantitative ethnobotany and Amazonian conservation. Conserv Biol. 1994;8:225–48.

Anonymous. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: version 3.1. IUCN species survival commission IUCN, Gland, witzerland and Cambridge, U.K. 2001.

Tuasha N, Petros B, Asfaw Z. Medicinal plants used by traditional healers to treat malignancies and other human ailments in Dalle District, Sidama Zone, Ethiopia. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2018;14(1):15.

Aziz MA, Khan AH, Adnan M, Ullah H. Traditional uses of medicinal plants used by indigenous communities for veterinary practices at Bajaur Agency, Pakistan. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2018;14(1):11.

Ullah M, Khan MU, Mahmood A, Malik RN, Hussain M, Wazir SM. An ethnobotanical survey of indigenous medicinal plants in Wana district south Waziristan agency. Pakistan J Ethnopharmacol. 2013;3:150–8.

Hussain W, Hussain J, Ali R, Khan I, Shinwari ZK, Nascimento IA. Tradable and conservation status of medicinal plants of KurramValley. Parachinar, Pakistan. 2012;2:66–70.

Soulé ME. What is conservation biology? Bioscience. 1985;35:727–34.

Heywood VH, Iriondo JM. Plant conservation: old problems, new perspectives. Biol Conserv. 2003;113(3):321–35.

Sayer J, Chokkalingam U, Poulsen J. The restoration of forest biodiversity and ecological values. For Ecol Manag. 2004;201(1):3–11.

Alam J, Ali SI. Conservation status of Androsace Russellii Y. Nasir: a critically endangered species in Gilgit District, Pakistan. Pak J Bot. 2010;42(3):1381–93.

Khasbagan S. Indigenous knowledge for plant species diversity: a case study of wild plants’ folk names used by the Mongolians in Ejina desert area, Inner Mongolia. PR China J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2008;4:2.

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Ahmad M, Qureshi R, Arshad M, Khan MA, Zafar M. Traditional herbal remedies used for the treatment of diabetes from district Attock (Pakistan). Pak J Bot. 2009;41(6):2777–82.

Ullah R, Iqbal ZHZ, Hussain J, Khan FU, Khan N, Muhammad Z. Traditional uses of medicinal plants in Darra Adam Khel NWFP Pakistan. J Med Plants Res. 2010;4(17):1815–21.

Gurudeeban S, Ramanathan T. Antidiabetic effect of Citrullus colocynthis in alloxon-induced diabetic rats. Inven Rapid Ethno Pharmacol. 2010;1:112.

Hoda Q, Ahmad S, Akhtar M, Najmi AK, Pillai KK, Ahmad SJ. Antihyperglycaemic and antihyperlipidaemic effect of poly-constituents, in aqueous and chloroform extracts, of Withania coagulans Dunal in experimental type 2 diabetes mellitus in rats. Hum Exp Toxicol. 2010;29(8):653–8.

Shinwari MI, Khan MA. Folk use of medicinal herbs of Margalla hills national park. Islamabad J Ethnopharmacol. 2000;69(1):45–56.

Abbas G, Abbas Q, Khan SW, Hussain I, Najumal-ul-Hassan S. Medicinal plants diversity and their utilization in Gilgit region. Northern Pakistan.

Ashraf M, Hayat MQ, Jabeen S, Shaheen N, Khan MA, Yasmin G, Artemisia L. Species recognized by the local community of the northern areas of Pakistan as folk therapeutic plants. J Med Plants Res. 2010;4(2):112–9.

Murad W, Ahmad A, Ishaq G, Saleem KM, Muhammad KA, Ullah I. Ethnobotanical studies on plant resources of Hazar Nao forest, district Malakand, Pakistan. Pakistan J Weed Sci Res. 2012;18(4):509–27.

Khan SW, Khatoon S. Ethnobotanical studies on some useful herbs of Haramosh and Bugrote valleys in Gilgit, northern areas of Pakistan. Pakistan J Bot. 2008;40(1):43.

Mohammad I, Rahmatullah Q, Shinwari ZK, Muhammad A, Mirza SN. Some ethnoecological aspects of the plants of Qalagai hills, Kabal valley, swat. Pakistan Int J Agric Biol. 2013;15(5):801–10.

Jabeen N, Ajaib M, Siddiqui MF, Ulfat M, Khan B. A survey of ethnobotanically important plants of District Ghizer. Gilgit-Baltistan FUUAST J Biol. 2015;5(1):153–60.

Jan G, Khan MA, Jan F. Medicinal value of the Asteraceae of Dir Kohistan Valley, NWFP, Pakistan. Ethnobot Leafl. 2009;13:1205–15.

Ali H, Sannai J, Sher H, Rashid A. Ethnobotanical profile of some plant resources in Malam Jabba valley of Swat. Pakistan J Med Plants Res. 2011;5(18):4676–87.

Jan G, Khan MA, Farhatullah JFG, Ahmad M, Jan M, Zafar M. Ethnobotanical studies on some useful plants of Dir Kohistan valleys, KPK. Pakistan. Pak J Bot. 2011;43(4):1849–52.

Akhtar N, Rashid A, Murad W, Bergmeier E. Diversity and use of ethno-medicinal plants in the region of Swat, north Pakistan. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2013;9(1):25.

Marwat SK. Ethnophytomedicines for treatment of various diseases in DI Khan district. Sarhad J Agric. 2008;24(2):305–15.

Ijaz F, Iqbal Z, Alam J, Khan SM, Afzal A, Rahman IU. Ethno medicinal study upon folk recipes against various human diseases in Sarban Hills, Abbottabad. Pakistan World J Zool. 2015;10(1):41–6.

Abbasi AM, Khan MA, Khan N, Shah MH. Ethnobotanical survey of medicinally important wild edible fruits species used by tribal communities of lesser Himalayas-Pakistan. J Ethnopharmacol. 2013;148(2):528–36.

Haq F, Ahmad H, Alam M. Traditional uses of medicinal plants of Nandiar Khuwarr catchment (district Battagram). Pakistan. J Med Plants Res. 2011;5(1):39–48.

Devi U, Seth MK, Sharma P, Rana JC. Study on ethnomedicinal plants of Kibber wildlife sanctuary: a cold desert in trans Himalaya. India J Med Plants Res. 2013;7(47):3400–19.

Alamgeer TA, Rashid M, Malik MNH, Mushtaq MN. Ethnomedicinal survey of plants of Valley Alladand Dehri, Tehsil Batkhela, District Malakand, Pakistan. Int J Basic Med Sci Pharm. 2013;3(1):23–32.

Khan B, Abdukadir A, Qureshi R, Mustafa G. Medicinal uses of plants by the inhabitants of Khunjerab National Park, Gilgit, Pakistan. Pak J Bot. 2011;43(5):2301–10.

Shah A, Marwat SK, Gohar F, Khan A, Bhatti KH, Amin M. Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants of semi-tribal area of Makerwal & Gulla Khel (lying between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces), Pakistan. Am J Plant Sci. 2013;4(1):98.

Mosaddegh M, Naghibi F, Moazzeni H, Pirani A, Esmaeili S. Ethnobotanical survey of herbal remedies traditionally used in Kohghiluyeh va Boyer Ahmad province of Iran. J Ethnopharmacol. 2012;141(1):80–95.

Malik AH, Khuroo AA, Dar GH, Khan ZS. Ethnomedicinal uses of some plants in the Kashmir Himalaya. 2011.

Jouad H, Haloui M, Rhiouani H, El Hilaly J, Eddouks M. Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used for the treatment of diabetes, cardiac and renal diseases in the north centre region of Morocco (Fez–Boulemane). J Ethnopharmacol. 2001;77(2–3):175–82.

Tumpa SI, Hossain MI, Ishika T. Ethnomedicinal uses of herbs by indigenous medicine practitioners of Jhenaidah district, Bangladesh. J Pharmacogn Phytochem. 2014;3(2):509–27.

Zari ST, Zari TA. A review of four common medicinal plants used to treat eczema. J Med Plants Res. 2015;9(24):702–11.

Dogan Y, Ugulu I. Medicinal plants used for gastrointestinal disorders in some districts of Izmir province, Turkey. Study Ethno-Medicine. 2013;7(3):149–61.

Shrivastava A, Chaturvedi U, Singh SV, Saxena JK, Bhatia G. A mechanism based pharmacological evaluation of efficacy of Allium sativum in regulation of dyslipidemia and oxidative stress in hyperlipidemic rats. Asian J Pharm Clin Res. 2012;5:123–6.

Zeraati F, Esna-Ashari F, Araghchian M, Emam AH, Rad MV, Seif S. Evaluation of topical antinociceptive effect of Artemisia absinthium extract in mice and possible mechanisms. African J Pharm Pharmacol. 2014;8(19):492–6.

Daradka HM, Abas MM, Mohammad MAM, Jaffar MM. Antidiabetic effect of Artemisia absinthium extracts on alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Comp Clin Path. 2014;23(6):1733–42.

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Gliani AH, Janbaz KH. Hepatoprotective effects of Artemisia scoparia against carbon tetrachloride: an environmental contaminant. Journal-Pakistan Med Assoc. 1994;44:65.

Zhu X, Zhang W, Zhao J, Wang J, Qu W. Hypolipidaemic and hepatoprotective effects of ethanolic and aqueous extracts from Asparagus officinalis L. by-products in mice fed a high-fat diet. J Sci Food Agric. 2010;90(7):1129–35.

Mathur R, Gupta SK, Mathur SR, Velpandian T. Anti-tumor studies with extracts of Calotropis procera (Ait.) R. Br. Root employing Hep2 cells and their possible mechanism of action. 2009.

Basu A, Sen T, Pal S, Mascolo N, Capasso F, Nag Chaudhuri AK. Studies on the antiulcer activity of the chloroform fraction of Calotropis procera root extract. Phyther Res. 1997;11(2):163–5.

Zuardi AW, Crippa JAS, Hallak JEC, Moreira FA, Guimaraes FS. Cannabidiol, a Cannabis sativa constituent, as an antipsychotic drug. Brazilian J Med Biol Res. 2006;39(4):421–9.

Abdel-Sattar E, Harraz FM, Ghareib SA, Elberry AA, Gabr S, Suliaman MI. Antihyperglycaemic and hypolipidaemic effects of the methanolic extract of Caralluma tuberculata in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Nat Prod Res. 2011;25(12):1171–9.

Ahmad S, Sharma R, Mahajan S, Gupta A. Antibacterial activity of Celtis australis by invitro study. 2012.

Pushparaj PN, Low HK, Manikandan J, Tan BKH, Tan CH. Anti-diabetic effects of Cichorium intybus in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. J Ethnopharmacol. 2007;111(2):430–4.

Vinaykumar T, Eswarkumar K, Roy H. Evaluation of antihyperglycemic activity of Citrullus colocynthis fruit pulp in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats.

Abdel-Hassan IA, Abdel-Barry JA, Mohammeda ST. The hypoglycaemic and antihyperglycaemic effect of Citrullus colocynthis fruit aqueous extract in normal and alloxan diabetic rabbits. J Ethnopharmacol. 2000;71(1–2):325–30.

Sebbagh N, Cruciani GC, Ouali F, Berthault MF, Rouch C, Sari DC. Comparative effects of Citrullus colocynthis, sunflower and olive oil-enriched diet in streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats. Diabetes Metab. 2009;35(3):178–84.

Khan S, Wang Z, Wang R, Zhang L. Horizontoates AC. New cholinesterase inhibitors from Cotoneaster horizontalis. Phytochem Lett 2014;10:204–208.

Soni P, Siddiqui AA, Dwivedi J, Soni V. Pharmacological properties of Datura stramonium L. as a potential medicinal tree: an overview. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed. 2012;2(12):1002–8.

Alam S, Asad M, Asdaq SMB, Prasad VS. Antiulcer activity of methanolic extract of Momordica charantia L. in rats. J Ethnopharmacol. 2009;123(3):464–9.

Rashid R, Mukhtar F, Khan A. Antifungal and cytotoxic activities of Nannorrhops ritchiana roots extract. Acta Pol Pharm. 2014;71(5):789.

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Amin A, Khan MA, Shah S, Ahmad M, Zafar M, Hameed A. Inhibitory effects of Olea ferruginea crude leaves extract against some bacterial and fungal pathogen. Pak J Pharm Sci. 2013;26(2):251–54.

Melese E, Asres K, Asad M, Engidawork E. Evaluation of the antipeptic ulcer activity of the leaf extract of Plantago lanceolata L. in rodents. Phyther Res. 2011;25(8):1174–80.

Karimi G, Hosseinzadeh H, Ettehad N. Evaluation of the gastric antiulcerogenic effects of Portulaca oleracea L. extracts in mice. Phyther Res. 2004;18(6):484–7.

Jainu M, Devi CSS. Antiulcerogenic and ulcer healing effects of Solanum nigrum (L.) on experimental ulcer models: possible mechanism for the inhibition of acid formation. J Ethnopharmacol. 2006;104(1–2):156–63.

Rashid M, Mushtaq MN, Malik MNH, Ghumman SA, Numan M, Khan AQ. Pharmacological evaluation of antidiabetic effect of ethyl acetate extract of Teucrium stocksianum Boiss in alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits. JAPS, J Anim Plant Sci. 2013;23(2):436–9.

Rawal P, Adhikari R, Tiwari A. Antifungal activity of Viola canescens against fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci. 2015;4(5):1025–32.

PSV R. Phytochemical screening and in vitro antimicrobial investigation of the methanolic extract of Xanthium strumarium leaf. Int J Drug Dev Res. 2011;3(4):286–93.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is part of the Doctoral research work of the principal (first) author. The authors also acknowledge the participants for sharing their valuable information.

Authors’ contribution

WH conducted the collection of field data and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. LB supervised the project. MU and MA helped in the field survey, sampling, and identification of taxon. AA and FH helped in the data analysis and revision of the manuscript. All the authors approved the final manuscript after revision.

Availability of data and materials

All the supporting data is available in Additional files  1 and 2 .

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Botany, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, 25000, Pakistan

Wahid Hussain & Lal Badshah

Department of Botany, University of Science and Technology, Bannu, Pakistan

Manzoor Ullah

Department of Plant Science, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Dr. Khan Shaheed Govt. Degree College Kabal, Swat, Pakistan

Institute of Biological Sciences, Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan

Farrukh Hussain

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maroof Ali .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

Letters of permission were taken from Peshawar University and local administration office prior to the data collections. Oral agreements were also got from the local informants about the aims and objectives of the study prior to the interviews, and all the field data were collected through their oral consents. No further ethics approval was required.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Additional files

Additional file 1:.

Field data of the research project Quantitative study of medicinal plants used by the communities residing in Koh-e-Safaid Range northern Pakistani-Afghan border. (XLSX 167 kb)

Additional file 2:

Annexures. (DOCX 27 kb)

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Hussain, W., Badshah, L., Ullah, M. et al. Quantitative study of medicinal plants used by the communities residing in Koh-e-Safaid Range, northern Pakistani-Afghan borders. J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine 14 , 30 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-018-0229-4

Download citation

Received : 23 November 2017

Accepted : 05 April 2018

Published : 25 April 2018

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-018-0229-4

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Quantitative study
• Medicinal plants
• Traditional knowledge
• Koh-e-Safaid Range

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine

ISSN: 1746-4269

• General enquiries: [email protected]

• Privacy Policy

Home » 500+ Quantitative Research Titles and Topics

500+ Quantitative Research Titles and Topics

Table of Contents

Quantitative research involves collecting and analyzing numerical data to identify patterns, trends, and relationships among variables. This method is widely used in social sciences, psychology , economics , and other fields where researchers aim to understand human behavior and phenomena through statistical analysis. If you are looking for a quantitative research topic, there are numerous areas to explore, from analyzing data on a specific population to studying the effects of a particular intervention or treatment. In this post, we will provide some ideas for quantitative research topics that may inspire you and help you narrow down your interests.

Quantitative Research Titles

Quantitative Research Titles are as follows:

Business and Economics

• “Statistical Analysis of Supply Chain Disruptions on Retail Sales”
• “Quantitative Examination of Consumer Loyalty Programs in the Fast Food Industry”
• “Predicting Stock Market Trends Using Machine Learning Algorithms”
• “Influence of Workplace Environment on Employee Productivity: A Quantitative Study”
• “Impact of Economic Policies on Small Businesses: A Regression Analysis”
• “Customer Satisfaction and Profit Margins: A Quantitative Correlation Study”
• “Analyzing the Role of Marketing in Brand Recognition: A Statistical Overview”
• “Quantitative Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Trust”
• “Price Elasticity of Demand for Luxury Goods: A Case Study”
• “The Relationship Between Fiscal Policy and Inflation Rates: A Time-Series Analysis”
• “Factors Influencing E-commerce Conversion Rates: A Quantitative Exploration”
• “Examining the Correlation Between Interest Rates and Consumer Spending”
• “Standardized Testing and Academic Performance: A Quantitative Evaluation”
• “Teaching Strategies and Student Learning Outcomes in Secondary Schools: A Quantitative Study”
• “The Relationship Between Extracurricular Activities and Academic Success”
• “Influence of Parental Involvement on Children’s Educational Achievements”
• “Digital Literacy in Primary Schools: A Quantitative Assessment”
• “Learning Outcomes in Blended vs. Traditional Classrooms: A Comparative Analysis”
• “Correlation Between Teacher Experience and Student Success Rates”
• “Analyzing the Impact of Classroom Technology on Reading Comprehension”
• “Gender Differences in STEM Fields: A Quantitative Analysis of Enrollment Data”
• “The Relationship Between Homework Load and Academic Burnout”
• “Assessment of Special Education Programs in Public Schools”
• “Role of Peer Tutoring in Improving Academic Performance: A Quantitative Study”

Medicine and Health Sciences

• “The Impact of Sleep Duration on Cardiovascular Health: A Cross-sectional Study”
• “Analyzing the Efficacy of Various Antidepressants: A Meta-Analysis”
• “Patient Satisfaction in Telehealth Services: A Quantitative Assessment”
• “Dietary Habits and Incidence of Heart Disease: A Quantitative Review”
• “Correlations Between Stress Levels and Immune System Functioning”
• “Smoking and Lung Function: A Quantitative Analysis”
• “Influence of Physical Activity on Mental Health in Older Adults”
• “Antibiotic Resistance Patterns in Community Hospitals: A Quantitative Study”
• “The Efficacy of Vaccination Programs in Controlling Disease Spread: A Time-Series Analysis”
• “Role of Social Determinants in Health Outcomes: A Quantitative Exploration”
• “Impact of Hospital Design on Patient Recovery Rates”
• “Quantitative Analysis of Dietary Choices and Obesity Rates in Children”

Social Sciences

• “Examining Social Inequality through Wage Distribution: A Quantitative Study”
• “Impact of Parental Divorce on Child Development: A Longitudinal Study”
• “Social Media and its Effect on Political Polarization: A Quantitative Analysis”
• “The Relationship Between Religion and Social Attitudes: A Statistical Overview”
• “Influence of Socioeconomic Status on Educational Achievement”
• “Quantifying the Effects of Community Programs on Crime Reduction”
• “Public Opinion and Immigration Policies: A Quantitative Exploration”
• “Analyzing the Gender Representation in Political Offices: A Quantitative Study”
• “Impact of Mass Media on Public Opinion: A Regression Analysis”
• “Influence of Urban Design on Social Interactions in Communities”
• “The Role of Social Support in Mental Health Outcomes: A Quantitative Analysis”
• “Examining the Relationship Between Substance Abuse and Employment Status”

Engineering and Technology

• “Performance Evaluation of Different Machine Learning Algorithms in Autonomous Vehicles”
• “Material Science: A Quantitative Analysis of Stress-Strain Properties in Various Alloys”
• “Impacts of Data Center Cooling Solutions on Energy Consumption”
• “Analyzing the Reliability of Renewable Energy Sources in Grid Management”
• “Optimization of 5G Network Performance: A Quantitative Assessment”
• “Quantifying the Effects of Aerodynamics on Fuel Efficiency in Commercial Airplanes”
• “The Relationship Between Software Complexity and Bug Frequency”
• “Machine Learning in Predictive Maintenance: A Quantitative Analysis”
• “Wearable Technologies and their Impact on Healthcare Monitoring”
• “Quantitative Assessment of Cybersecurity Measures in Financial Institutions”
• “Analysis of Noise Pollution from Urban Transportation Systems”
• “The Influence of Architectural Design on Energy Efficiency in Buildings”

Quantitative Research Topics

Quantitative Research Topics are as follows:

• The effects of social media on self-esteem among teenagers.
• A comparative study of academic achievement among students of single-sex and co-educational schools.
• The impact of gender on leadership styles in the workplace.
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic performance of students.
• The effect of mindfulness meditation on stress levels in college students.
• The relationship between employee motivation and job satisfaction.
• The effectiveness of online learning compared to traditional classroom learning.
• The correlation between sleep duration and academic performance among college students.
• The impact of exercise on mental health among adults.
• The relationship between social support and psychological well-being among cancer patients.
• The effect of caffeine consumption on sleep quality.
• A comparative study of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy in treating depression.
• The relationship between physical attractiveness and job opportunities.
• The correlation between smartphone addiction and academic performance among high school students.
• The impact of music on memory recall among adults.
• The effectiveness of parental control software in limiting children’s online activity.
• The relationship between social media use and body image dissatisfaction among young adults.
• The correlation between academic achievement and parental involvement among minority students.
• The impact of early childhood education on academic performance in later years.
• The effectiveness of employee training and development programs in improving organizational performance.
• The relationship between socioeconomic status and access to healthcare services.
• The correlation between social support and academic achievement among college students.
• The impact of technology on communication skills among children.
• The effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction programs in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression.
• The relationship between employee turnover and organizational culture.
• The correlation between job satisfaction and employee engagement.
• The impact of video game violence on aggressive behavior among children.
• The effectiveness of nutritional education in promoting healthy eating habits among adolescents.
• The relationship between bullying and academic performance among middle school students.
• The correlation between teacher expectations and student achievement.
• The impact of gender stereotypes on career choices among high school students.
• The effectiveness of anger management programs in reducing violent behavior.
• The relationship between social support and recovery from substance abuse.
• The correlation between parent-child communication and adolescent drug use.
• The impact of technology on family relationships.
• The effectiveness of smoking cessation programs in promoting long-term abstinence.
• The relationship between personality traits and academic achievement.
• The correlation between stress and job performance among healthcare professionals.
• The impact of online privacy concerns on social media use.
• The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating anxiety disorders.
• The relationship between teacher feedback and student motivation.
• The correlation between physical activity and academic performance among elementary school students.
• The impact of parental divorce on academic achievement among children.
• The effectiveness of diversity training in improving workplace relationships.
• The relationship between childhood trauma and adult mental health.
• The correlation between parental involvement and substance abuse among adolescents.
• The impact of social media use on romantic relationships among young adults.
• The effectiveness of assertiveness training in improving communication skills.
• The relationship between parental expectations and academic achievement among high school students.
• The correlation between sleep quality and mood among adults.
• The impact of video game addiction on academic performance among college students.
• The effectiveness of group therapy in treating eating disorders.
• The relationship between job stress and job performance among teachers.
• The correlation between mindfulness and emotional regulation.
• The impact of social media use on self-esteem among college students.
• The effectiveness of parent-teacher communication in promoting academic achievement among elementary school students.
• The impact of renewable energy policies on carbon emissions
• The relationship between employee motivation and job performance
• The effectiveness of psychotherapy in treating eating disorders
• The correlation between physical activity and cognitive function in older adults
• The effect of childhood poverty on adult health outcomes
• The impact of urbanization on biodiversity conservation
• The relationship between work-life balance and employee job satisfaction
• The effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in treating trauma
• The correlation between parenting styles and child behavior
• The effect of social media on political polarization
• The impact of foreign aid on economic development
• The relationship between workplace diversity and organizational performance
• The effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy in treating borderline personality disorder
• The correlation between childhood abuse and adult mental health outcomes
• The effect of sleep deprivation on cognitive function
• The impact of trade policies on international trade and economic growth
• The relationship between employee engagement and organizational commitment
• The effectiveness of cognitive therapy in treating postpartum depression
• The correlation between family meals and child obesity rates
• The effect of parental involvement in sports on child athletic performance
• The impact of social entrepreneurship on sustainable development
• The relationship between emotional labor and job burnout
• The effectiveness of art therapy in treating dementia
• The correlation between social media use and academic procrastination
• The effect of poverty on childhood educational attainment
• The impact of urban green spaces on mental health
• The relationship between job insecurity and employee well-being
• The effectiveness of virtual reality exposure therapy in treating anxiety disorders
• The correlation between childhood trauma and substance abuse
• The effect of screen time on children’s social skills
• The impact of trade unions on employee job satisfaction
• The relationship between cultural intelligence and cross-cultural communication
• The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy in treating chronic pain
• The correlation between childhood obesity and adult health outcomes
• The effect of gender diversity on corporate performance
• The impact of environmental regulations on industry competitiveness.
• The impact of renewable energy policies on greenhouse gas emissions
• The relationship between workplace diversity and team performance
• The effectiveness of group therapy in treating substance abuse
• The correlation between parental involvement and social skills in early childhood
• The effect of technology use on sleep patterns
• The impact of government regulations on small business growth
• The relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover
• The effectiveness of virtual reality therapy in treating anxiety disorders
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic motivation in adolescents
• The effect of social media on political engagement
• The impact of urbanization on mental health
• The relationship between corporate social responsibility and consumer trust
• The correlation between early childhood education and social-emotional development
• The effect of screen time on cognitive development in young children
• The impact of trade policies on global economic growth
• The relationship between workplace diversity and innovation
• The effectiveness of family therapy in treating eating disorders
• The correlation between parental involvement and college persistence
• The effect of social media on body image and self-esteem
• The impact of environmental regulations on business competitiveness
• The relationship between job autonomy and job satisfaction
• The effectiveness of virtual reality therapy in treating phobias
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic achievement in college
• The effect of social media on sleep quality
• The impact of immigration policies on social integration
• The relationship between workplace diversity and employee well-being
• The effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy in treating personality disorders
• The correlation between early childhood education and executive function skills
• The effect of parental involvement on STEM education outcomes
• The impact of trade policies on domestic employment rates
• The relationship between job insecurity and mental health
• The effectiveness of exposure therapy in treating PTSD
• The correlation between parental involvement and social mobility
• The effect of social media on intergroup relations
• The impact of urbanization on air pollution and respiratory health.
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness
• The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating depression
• The correlation between early childhood education and language development
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in STEM fields
• The impact of trade policies on income inequality
• The relationship between workplace diversity and customer satisfaction
• The effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy in treating anxiety disorders
• The correlation between parental involvement and civic engagement in adolescents
• The effect of social media on mental health among teenagers
• The impact of public transportation policies on traffic congestion
• The relationship between job stress and job performance
• The effectiveness of group therapy in treating depression
• The correlation between early childhood education and cognitive development
• The effect of parental involvement on academic motivation in college
• The impact of environmental regulations on energy consumption
• The relationship between workplace diversity and employee engagement
• The effectiveness of art therapy in treating PTSD
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in vocational education
• The effect of social media on academic achievement in college
• The impact of tax policies on economic growth
• The relationship between job flexibility and work-life balance
• The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy in treating anxiety disorders
• The correlation between early childhood education and social competence
• The effect of parental involvement on career readiness in high school
• The impact of immigration policies on crime rates
• The relationship between workplace diversity and employee retention
• The effectiveness of play therapy in treating trauma
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in online learning
• The effect of social media on body dissatisfaction among women
• The impact of urbanization on public health infrastructure
• The relationship between job satisfaction and job performance
• The effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy in treating PTSD
• The correlation between early childhood education and social skills in adolescence
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in the arts
• The impact of trade policies on foreign investment
• The relationship between workplace diversity and decision-making
• The effectiveness of exposure and response prevention therapy in treating OCD
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in special education
• The impact of zoning laws on affordable housing
• The relationship between job design and employee motivation
• The effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation therapy in treating traumatic brain injury
• The correlation between early childhood education and social-emotional learning
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in foreign language learning
• The impact of trade policies on the environment
• The relationship between workplace diversity and creativity
• The effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy in treating relationship problems
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in music education
• The effect of social media on interpersonal communication skills
• The impact of public health campaigns on health behaviors
• The relationship between job resources and job stress
• The effectiveness of equine therapy in treating substance abuse
• The correlation between early childhood education and self-regulation
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in physical education
• The impact of immigration policies on cultural assimilation
• The relationship between workplace diversity and conflict resolution
• The effectiveness of schema therapy in treating personality disorders
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in career and technical education
• The effect of social media on trust in government institutions
• The impact of urbanization on public transportation systems
• The relationship between job demands and job stress
• The correlation between early childhood education and executive functioning
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in computer science
• The effectiveness of cognitive processing therapy in treating PTSD
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in homeschooling
• The effect of social media on cyberbullying behavior
• The impact of urbanization on air quality
• The effectiveness of dance therapy in treating anxiety disorders
• The correlation between early childhood education and math achievement
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in health education
• The impact of global warming on agriculture
• The effectiveness of narrative therapy in treating depression
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in character education
• The effect of social media on political participation
• The impact of technology on job displacement
• The relationship between job resources and job satisfaction
• The effectiveness of art therapy in treating addiction
• The correlation between early childhood education and reading comprehension
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in environmental education
• The impact of income inequality on social mobility
• The relationship between workplace diversity and organizational culture
• The effectiveness of solution-focused brief therapy in treating anxiety disorders
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in physical therapy education
• The effect of social media on misinformation
• The impact of green energy policies on economic growth
• The relationship between job demands and employee well-being
• The correlation between early childhood education and science achievement
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in religious education
• The impact of gender diversity on corporate governance
• The relationship between workplace diversity and ethical decision-making
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in dental hygiene education
• The effect of social media on self-esteem among adolescents
• The impact of renewable energy policies on energy security
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in social studies
• The impact of trade policies on job growth
• The relationship between workplace diversity and leadership styles
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in online vocational training
• The effect of social media on self-esteem among men
• The impact of urbanization on air pollution levels
• The effectiveness of music therapy in treating depression
• The correlation between early childhood education and math skills
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in language arts
• The impact of immigration policies on labor market outcomes
• The effectiveness of hypnotherapy in treating phobias
• The effect of social media on political engagement among young adults
• The impact of urbanization on access to green spaces
• The relationship between job crafting and job satisfaction
• The effectiveness of exposure therapy in treating specific phobias
• The correlation between early childhood education and spatial reasoning
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in business education
• The impact of trade policies on economic inequality
• The effectiveness of narrative therapy in treating PTSD
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in nursing education
• The effect of social media on sleep quality among adolescents
• The impact of urbanization on crime rates
• The relationship between job insecurity and turnover intentions
• The effectiveness of pet therapy in treating anxiety disorders
• The correlation between early childhood education and STEM skills
• The effect of parental involvement on academic achievement in culinary education
• The impact of immigration policies on housing affordability
• The relationship between workplace diversity and employee satisfaction
• The effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction in treating chronic pain
• The correlation between parental involvement and academic success in art education
• The effect of social media on academic procrastination among college students
• The impact of urbanization on public safety services.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

You may also like

200+ Funny Research Topics

500+ Sports Research Topics

300+ American History Research Paper Topics

500+ Cyber Security Research Topics

500+ Environmental Research Topics

500+ Economics Research Topics

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Quant Plant Biol
• PMC10095877

What is quantitative plant biology?

Daphné autran.

1 DIADE, University of Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France

George W. Bassel

2 School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

Eunyoung Chae

3 Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Daphne Ezer

4 The Alan Turing Institute, London, United Kingdom

5 Department of Statistics, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

6 Department of Biology, University of York, York, United Kingdom

Ali Ferjani

7 Department of Biology, Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan

Christian Fleck

8 Freiburg Center for Data Analysis and Modeling (FDM), University of Freiburg, Breisgau, Germany

Olivier Hamant

9 Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, École normale supérieure (ENS) de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon (UCBL), Lyon, France

10 Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE), CNRS, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France

Félix P. Hartmann

11 Université Clermont-Auvergne, INRAE, PIAF, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Yuling Jiao

12 State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research (Beijing), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, The Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

13 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Iain G. Johnston

14 Department of Mathematics, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

Dorota Kwiatkowska

15 Institute of Biology, Biotechnology and Environment Protection, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

Boon L. Lim

16 School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Ari Pekka Mahönen

17 Institute of Biotechnology, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

18 Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

19 Viikki Plant Science Centre, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Richard J. Morris

20 Computational and Systems Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom

Bela M. Mulder

21 Department of Living Matter, Institute AMOLF, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Naomi Nakayama

22 Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Ross Sozzani

23 Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina USA

Lucia C. Strader

24 Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

25 NSF Science and Technology Center for Engineering Mechanobiology, Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri USA

Kirsten ten Tusscher

26 Theoretical Biology, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Minako Ueda

27 Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Sebastian Wolf

28 Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) Heidelberg, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

Associated Data

Data availability is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.

Peer Review Summary

Quantitative plant biology is an interdisciplinary field that builds on a long history of biomathematics and biophysics. Today, thanks to high spatiotemporal resolution tools and computational modelling, it sets a new standard in plant science. Acquired data, whether molecular, geometric or mechanical, are quantified, statistically assessed and integrated at multiple scales and across fields. They feed testable predictions that, in turn, guide further experimental tests. Quantitative features such as variability, noise, robustness, delays or feedback loops are included to account for the inner dynamics of plants and their interactions with the environment. Here, we present the main features of this ongoing revolution, through new questions around signalling networks, tissue topology, shape plasticity, biomechanics, bioenergetics, ecology and engineering. In the end, quantitative plant biology allows us to question and better understand our interactions with plants. In turn, this field opens the door to transdisciplinary projects with the society, notably through citizen science.

1. Introduction

Strictly speaking, taking quantitative biology approach means that we use numbers, and typically also mathematics, to describe biological processes ( Figure 1 ). However, this is not merely a nice-to-have extra or a technological increment; it actually revolutionises knowledge production. Quantitation leads to identifying and modelling dependencies between different measurements, which is the way to form new hypotheses. Statistical approaches measure the strength of such dependencies. Modelling then allows a preliminary test of the hypothesis in silico, with predictions tested again in experiments with quantitative results, while all along probability theory is used to make sure that we draw sound inferences, and account for noise and robustness. This is what a quantitative approach in the multiple senses used in this review means—an iterative approach of measurement, statistical analyses, hypothesis testing in silico, in vitro and in planta, and back to the next cycle with the gained knowledge we have just obtained.

A quantitative revolution in plant science. Whereas molecular insights in plant biology could simply provide a molecular catalogue of plant ontology, the integration of mathematics and computational modelling has instead helped to identify new questions with the aim to unravel the principles of plant life. Hypotheses are formalised and tested in computational models, and results from simulations fuel further experimental analysis. Assessment of the validity of the results, from molecules to ecosystems, involves statistical validation and further quantitative exploration. Background image ( Primula officinalis ) taken from Atlas des plantes de France, A. Masclef, Paul Klincksieck Ed., Paris, 1890. Quantitative examples extracted from Verna et al., 2019 eLife; Chakrabortty et al., 2018 Curr. Biol.; Bastien et al., 2013 PNAS; Brestovitsky et al., 2019 Plant Direct; Zhao et al., 2020 Curr. Biol.; Woolfenden et al., 2017 Plant J; Cummins, 2018 Nature; Allard, 2010 Mol. Biol. Cell. and Fache et al., 2010 Plant Cell.

Furthermore, such an interdisciplinary approach also fuels creativity and triggers new questions for two reasons: (a) being able to formalise questions within a defined mathematical framework also means that hypotheses become truly testable and interoperable. This is key to understand plants as multiscale (both in space and in time) systems, (b) because interdisciplinary settings imply that not everybody is an expert in all techniques, the focus remains on the question at hand, and not the techniques and their development. This means that quantitative biology is one of the best ways to open new avenues of research, and identify new questions ( Figure 2 ). This is what we are attempting to elaborate on in this review.

Examples of research topics at the crossroad between plant biology, physics and maths. Quantitative plant biology explores these topics, and the common mathematical framework allows their integration, across spatial and temporal scales. See main text for details.

2. Signalling networks

Signalling networks primarily act to process and integrate information perceived through a multitude of receptor systems, and relay this information to cellular effectors, which, in turn, enact a response tailored to the conditions. This definition implies that information is encoded and decoded, and thus can be formalised. This is a thriving field of study in computational modelling (Long et al., 2008 ). In terms of identifying complex relationships between inputs and outputs, machine learning approaches are becoming increasingly popular. Furthermore, exciting developments in technologies coupled with statistical techniques now allow for the inference signalling networks from large genomic datasets which are becoming readily available (Carré et al., 2017 ).

Most studies on signalling networks have emphasised the identification of the molecular components critical for signal transduction pathways in a mostly binary manner (‘on’ vs. ‘off’), often considering a reduced set of actors (minimally a receptor and its ligand), under controlled-lab growth conditions. To expand our knowledge beyond the description of pathway architecture and understand how integrated signalling networks behave in varying conditions, quantitative biology approaches are required. For example, how can signals be discriminated from each other when they simultaneously occur? How can priorities be established and an integrated response achieved when a cell is challenged with multiple inputs, beyond the so-called ‘hormonal cross-talk’? How are thresholding and noise filtering mechanisms molecularly encoded to prevent spurious pathway activation? Answering these questions requires accepting a number of technical challenges, for example, concerning the quantification of signalling molecules and graded responses.

A major achievement in plant signalling has been the identification of the core components of ‘receptor–ligand’ pairs for many signal transduction pathways, through the isolation of mutants that have modified responses to a particular signal, that either fail to respond, or respond constitutively even in the absence of that signal. Genetics further uncovered the hierarchy and interactions among transduction pathway components and showed how complex the networks involved in the integration of signalling inputs and outputs are. This includes feedback mechanisms, where signalling sometimes provides unexpected compensatory responses. For instance, a dwarf cellulose synthase mutant is partially rescued when it bears another mutation in the wall integrity pathway: the plant becomes unable to detect the damages in its cell wall and thus does not trigger growth arrest mechanisms (Hématy et al., 2007 ).

Compared to other systems, the contribution of signalling dynamics, that is, the duration, frequency and amplitude of a signal for downstream responses, has been somewhat neglected in plants (Purvis & Lahav, 2013 ). For example, in mammalian cells, transient activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) through epidermal growth factor can result in cell proliferation, whereas sustained activation by nerve growth factor can lead to cell differentiation (Avraham & Yarden, 2011 ). It has been predicted and experimentally validated that modulation of feedback strength in a single inhibitory loop from ERK to one of its upstream kinases (RAF) can result in a variety of stable output states ranging from a sustained monotone response to a transient adapted output, to oscillation, or to bi-stable, switch-like responses (Kholodenko et al., 2010 ). In plants, our understanding of this temporal dimension of information encoding is far less developed and thus opens many avenues for pioneering studies in quantitative plant biology.

Despite increased efforts, the availability of quantitative data on signalling events remains the major constraint for approaches aiming at a deeper understanding and modelling of signalling networks. An ever-expanding set of biosensors, which allow for the in vivo visualisation and quantification of signalling molecules with cellular or even subcellular resolution, are among the most promising remedies for this lingering ailment. In fact, very recently, biosensor-based approaches have brought breakthroughs to the field of plant signalling. For example, a study by Toyota and colleagues has elegantly elucidated ‘Rapid, long-distance signalling in plants’ showing that when injured on one leaf by a nibbling insect, a plant can alert its other leaves to begin anticipatory defence responses (Toyota et al., 2018 ). This development went hand in hand with quantitative approaches and mathematical modelling that led to the proposal of a propagation mechanism (Evans et al., 2016 ). In addition, emerging systems biology tools may provide new ways to perturb signalling network components in a spatially and temporally controlled manner to illustrate network behaviour.

Finally, beyond the computational models of networks, validation with molecular genetics and biosensors, quantitative approaches on signalling also need to deal with numerous players, their redundancy, synergy and antagonism. Crucial gene activities are often shared by several redundant homologs, and thus single mutations in such genes cause only partial defects. It is also challenging to identify the primary defect from all the secondary defects. These difficulties can be solved by extensive phenotype quantification. For example, the roles of various miRNAs, which were identified by small RNA sequencing of Arabidopsis embryos, were clarified based on their mutant phenotypes on each embryonic tissue and developmental stage (Plotnikova et al., 2019 ). Such quantification can be further combined with CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing techniques that enable tissue-specific and conditional gene manipulation of target gene (Decaestecker et al., 2019 ; Wang et al., 2020 ). With the help of such systems, one can knockout genes in specific cell types at will, thus enabling the identification of the distinct roles of the identified genes.

3. Noise and robustness

Another layer of complexity is brought about by a prevalent factor in biology: noise. Stochastic, or random, effects pervade biology across scales (Lestas et al., 2010 ; Tsimring, 2014 ), from cells where molecules are constantly buffeted by thermal noise, to the robust formation of organs by collections of cells, to the environmental fluctuations experienced by crops in the field. Noise also invades our efforts to measure the biological world, leading to technical variation and requiring transparent quantitative methods for responsible analysis. Unavoidable, multiscale noise in biology provides both challenges and opportunities for plants, and a large and growing body of work seeks to elucidate how plants attempt to filter out, or exploit, randomness. We cannot hope here to give a comprehensive survey of the many ways stochastic influences shape plant biology, but hope that a few classic examples across scales will illustrate the ubiquity, and importance, of stochasticity in plant biology (Abley et al., 2016 ).

At the most fundamental level, stochasticity in the form of spontaneous mutations and other events underlies all plant evolution (e.g., Rose et al., 2002 ) studying the interplay of stochastic variation and fitness in thistle populations. With the view of neutral theory of molecular evolution, stochastic events continually shape plant population structure (e.g., Menges, 2014 , modelling the impact of stochastic extinction events on plant populations).

Within plants, cellular noise impacts vital processes across scales including the circadian clock (Guerriero et al., 2012 ), gene expression (Araújo et al., 2017 ; Wang et al., 2004 ), internal signalling (Trewavas, 2012 ), tropisms (Meroz & Bastien, 2014 ), patterning (Meyer et al., 2017 ) organ shape plasticity (Hong et al., 2018 ) and seed germination (see below). The cytoskeletal polymer networks formed by actin and microtubules are prime examples of why quantitative approaches are inevitable: they are far-out of equilibrium, stochastic, interacting many-particle systems with a high number of spatial degrees of freedom. Emergent properties from such behaviour include the formation of parallel arrays or cell division plane orientations. As such, they are at the cutting edge of statistical physics, a vibrant field of highly quantitative research in its own right (Deinum & Mulder, 2013 ; Wasteneys & Ambrose, 2009 ).

Stochastic modelling can provide a powerful framework to understand the interactions of plants with their environments (e.g., Katul et al., 2007 ). Elegant modelling work coupling mechanical and stochastic influences has been used to describe whole-plant development (e.g., Costes et al., 2008 ; for apple trees). The explosion of multiomics technology has allowed genetic features shaping noise levels in transcripts and metabolites to be discovered (Jimenez-Gomez et al., 2011 ).

Some of these stochastic influences constitute challenges for plants—for example, cellular noise in signalling pathways means that plants need to invest extra resources in maintaining the fidelity of signals. However, noise can also be beneficial, providing a useful source of variability in plants (Muller et al., 2019 ). Bet-hedging in seeds provides a compelling example of plants exploiting noise: a generation of seeds that germinate at different times will be more robust to unpredictable environmental change than one that germinates synchronously. Johnston and Bassel ( 2018 ) identified a network motif encoding a variability enabling bet-hedging in seeds. In this system, noisy positive feedback onto both ABA synthesis and ABA degradation can result in significantly varying final hormone levels. Noise can even help signals to become detectable, because noise on top of a weak signal can make the signal detectable, a phenomenon called ‘stochastic resonance’ (Rué et al., 2012 ).

Variability in environmental inputs is also leveraged by dormant seeds. Topham et al. ( 2017 ) identified a system whereby seeds make preferential use of fluctuating ambient and low temperatures over constant low temperature to break their dormancy. This mechanism indicates that the perception of low temperature in seeds is not a matter of the linear accumulation of cold, but rather complex processing of these fluctuating inputs. The adaptive significance of this may relate to daily temperature fluctuations being greater in the spring and autumn, with these variable signals acting as indicators of the changing seasons.

The relationship between the variability in single cells and their collective contribution towards robust organ shape and size has also been investigated. It is proposed that noise across molecular and cellular scales can be amplified to prime organogenesis (Uyttewaal et al., 2012 ) or filtered in order to ultimately result in the formation of organs having consistent morphologies (Hervieux et al., 2017 ).

The study of these vital influences is quantitative in essence. Statistical measures to quantify variability and heterogeneity across scales have been developed. The characterisation of noise requires these quantitative measures (for example, a measure of dispersion like the coefficient of variation or Fano factor; Tsimring, 2014 ). Large numbers of quantitative observations are required for accuracy in these measurements, and to distinguish mechanistic hypotheses when noise is involved. It is only through suitably coupled quantitative models, experiments and statistical methods that we can hope to unravel the sources and effects of stochasticity in plant biology, and the mechanisms by which plants deal with, and exploit, the resulting variability. There is much at stake since robust agrosystems increasingly build on genetic heterogeneity (agroforestry, agroecology and mixed varieties) while facing increasing environmental fluctuations. The future of food security will involve careful assessment of uncertainties and better ways to build on the added values of stochasticity.

Another issue related to noise exists in concert—perhaps less biologically exciting but equally, if not more, societally important. Statistical misunderstandings of the role noise plays in experiments has led to most published research findings being wrong, at least in some scientific fields (Ioannidis, 2005 ). To combat this, we need both to embrace rigorous (but not necessarily complicated) statistical methods and a shift in quantitative philosophy, where noise and uncertainty are more transparently and openly addressed and critically analysed. The p  < .05 paradigm, and accompanying focus on statistical rather than scientific significance, has been much criticised (Ziliak & McCloskey, 2008 ). Even within this paradigm, statistical tests are frequently misused. A common example is using a t -test for integers or non-negative entities when the standard deviation (not the standard error!) is of similar magnitude to the mean. Clearly, such a sample cannot be normally distributed, and other tests (like Mann–Whitney) should be favoured (Saxon, 2015 ). The series of articles in Saxon ( 2015 ) highlights several other statistical misuses that confound scientific progress. As the transition towards more quantitative and data-rich plant biology continues, we urge researchers to adapt their statistical approaches to ensure this exciting world is understood as accurately as possible.

4. Tissue topology as an instructive cue

Signalling and noise occur in cells that reside in tissues. An individual cell’s function is thus highly biased by that of its neighbours. Beyond the molecular aspects, plant biology thus embeds another strong quantitative component: topology.

Cell-to-cell communication is central to plants. Coordination between cells is needed to orchestrate growth and development, as well as responses to their environment. Plant cells can transmit information using chemical, mechanical and electrical signals. Chemical signals typically move between cells through a secreted peptide sensed by a transmembrane receptor kinase, through symplastic channels called ‘plasmodesmata’ or via efflux and influx transporters. Mechanical signals are likely to be transduced via the connecting cell wall surfaces, although the precise mechanisms for this remain to be elucidated. Electrical signals could be transferred through membrane voltage through plasmodesmata or the transport of ions. All these mechanisms are dependent on either symplastic connectivity or common surface areas between cells. Topology is thus an essential part of plant biology.

As cells divide, the daughter cells may lose connections to some of the previously neighbouring cells. Growth can cause movement or deformation of cells, thus leading to changes in the contact surface area with neighbouring cells and potentially new connections. One would therefore expect that growth and development would lead to changes in communication between cells. How could plant cells then know, in this ever-changing environment, how to act and whether they should divide or differentiate (Jackson et al., 2019 )? How is this dynamic cell-to-cell communication achieved and coordinated (Bassel, 2018 )?

One possibility is spatial restriction acting to modulate the expression of key proteins, whose flux in concentration gradients create unique microenvironments. The microenvironment of a cell is established by a combination of signals within the original cell, known as cell autonomous signalling, along with external signals known as non cell autonomous signals. These signals originate from neighbouring cells, such as phytohormones or mobile proteins, executing non cell autonomous functions in plants. The importance of regulatory mobile proteins in establishing a unique microenvironment has been shown to be central for the proper cellular organisation of the root stem cell niche, and thus cell-to-cell communication in this region. For example, non cell autonomous signalling of SHORTROOT (SHR) and its binding partner SCARECROW (SCR) guide the timing of cell division and determine cell fate of quiescent centre (QC) cells and cortex-endodermis initial (CEI) cells in the Arabidopsis root stem cell niche (Cruz-Ramírez et al., 2012 ).

Studying the communication between cells is critical both to address complex problems at the whole-organism level, and to understand systemwide cellular behaviours. To accommodate the study of cell-to-cell communication, several exciting approaches have been used. Using scanning fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, one can quantify protein characteristics within a specific cell type, such as complex stoichiometry, as well as molecular dynamics between different cells, such as protein movement (Clark et al., 2016 ). SHR and SCR expression activity differs in QC and CEI cells, as they form complexes in each cell type with different stoichiometric proportions. Methods like raster image correlation spectroscopy, pair correlation function and number and brightness allow mobile transcription factor motility and expression levels to be analysed, thus quantifying how they contribute to developmental processes. Computational modelling can then be used to predict cellular behaviour, such as cell division or differentiation timing, as well as expression dynamics of key regulatory proteins in specific QC and CEI cells. The latter can be accomplished through mathematical methods such as ordinary differential equations, which can take into consideration the number and concentration of stoichiometric complexes of SHR and SCR in each cell type, the difference in SHR and SCR expression between cell types QC and CEI and relevant upstream regulatory elements (Clark et al., 2020 ).

Mathematical modelling also has a key role to play in developing and testing hypotheses on communication through plasmodesmata. Our understanding of how this process works is still relatively poor, but two mathematical models have recently offered new insights into how this may work. Deinum et al. ( 2019 ) developed a model of diffusion from cell to cell through plasmodesmata. The authors built a detailed multilevel model based on realistic plasmodesmatal geometries and investigated the impact of different geometrical parameters and plasmodesmatal distributions. This model allows for wall permeabilities, as a function of geometrical parameters, to be inferred from experimental data. Park et al. ( 2019 ) modelled cell-to-cell communication via plasmodesmatal flux as a function of turgor pressure. They hypothesised a plasmodesmata closing mechanism based on mechanosensing. This model offers an explanation for rapid closing for which the alternate model of callose deposition seems too slow. Further work, both theoretical and experimental, is needed to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning the functioning of these important communication channels.

An interdisciplinary approach is required for another key aspect of this topic: ‘decoding’ the information involved in cell communication. Increasingly, detailed experiments and bioinformatics are revealing the mechanisms of production, and dynamics, of different signals (molecular and biophysical). But how such complex signals are used by the plant to convey information is an open question. What processing converts an intracellular combination of hormone concentrations into an actionable signal, for example? Over what length and timescales can signals of different physical forms be sent and received through the plant? How is the fidelity of such signals retained in the face of inevitable noise (Lestas et al., 2010 )? Quantitative answers to these questions have tremendous potential for basic biology and agronomical resilience, but will require a cross-disciplinary approach using information theory, modelling and statistics to harness exciting new data.

5. Morphometric atlas for morphogenesis

Scaling up from tissue topology, another quantitative aspect of plant biology is shape, which can be complex in case of many organs, and morphogenesis, that is, shape changes in time or its maintenance despite organ growth. At the tissue scale, quantitative plant biology can take the form of growth kinematics, which is growth description of high spatiotemporal resolution that is necessary to understand plant growth dynamics, that is, how the plants develop (Silk, 1984 ). The most influential proponents of quantitative studies of plant growth and development were Ralph O. Erickson (1914–2006) and his students or followers, the late Zygmunt Hejnowicz (1929–2016) and Paul B. Green (1931–1998), as well as Wendy K. Silk (Meicenheimer & Silk, 2006 ). These scientists have used quantitative and interdisciplinary approaches despite the average biologists’ prejudice against math and statistics at that time (Erickson, 1988 ). In his review devoted to modelling of plant growth, Erickson ( 1976 ) summed up their approach writing that ‘in any attempt at modelling it should be possible to relate the experimental data to the differential equations which represent the process being modelled’. Experimental data thus must have to be extensive in terms of precision and robust, through large sample size. In such endeavours, the required quantitative analysis is often complemented by modelling.

Kinematics of plant growth has been studied from two biophysical perspectives: fluid dynamics (Silk, 1984 ) and solid body mechanics (Hejnowicz & Romberger, 1984 ). The first perspective is based on the analogy between plant growth and fluid flow: individual cells ‘flow’ through a growing plant organ that maintains an almost steady shape. The second perspective focuses on the continuous character of the symplastic growth, typical for plant tissues, which is cell growth coordinated at tissue and organ levels. The symplastic growth of plant organs, which is often also anisotropic, is the irreversible tissue deformation that observes the continuum condition of solid body mechanics. Both perspectives, fluid dynamics and solid body mechanics, put forward the tensorial nature of plant organ growth, which implies elaborate quantifications and modelling (Hejnowicz & Romberger, 1984 ; Silk, 1984 ).

Empirical studies of plant growth and development as well as its complex regulation are technically challenging, because growth is often unsteady and inhomogeneous. Therefore, critical for the progress of our understanding of plant morphogenesis are techniques enabling the acquisition of high spatiotemporal resolution, high quality and well-quantified imaging data and its subsequent analysis. Recently, various techniques were developed to support live imaging, such as autotracking of moving samples and in vitro tissue cultivation under microscopes. These techniques were further combined with minimally invasive microscopy, including light sheet and two-photon excitation systems, and enabled long-term time-lapse imaging to visualise the four-dimensional dynamics during pattern formation. For example, the combination of Arabidopsis ovule cultivation and two-photon excitation microscopy revealed the 4D atlas of cell lineages during embryo patterning (Gooh et al., 2015 ). Furthermore, high-resolution live imaging enabled to monitor the intracellular behaviour of developing cells, such as cytoskeletal rearrangement during lateral root initiation and vacuolar shape change during zygote polarisation (Kimata et al., 2019 ; Vilches Barro et al., 2019 ).

The advanced imaging technologies provide a vast amount of spatiotemporal data, and this can mask important information. Therefore, image quantification is essential to extract key properties from the 4D big data. For example, cell volume and division orientation were quantified at various stages of embryogenesis, and these values were utilised for simulation modelling, which revealed the importance of geometric cell division rules and its modification by plant hormone auxin in embryo patterning (Yoshida et al., 2014 ; Moukhtar et al. , 2019 ). Thus, the combination of 4D imaging and detailed quantification can provide a powerful tool to identify fundamental rules underlying plant morphogenesis. As shown next, such morphometric analyses are now integrated with gene networks and cell identities in comprehensive 4D atlases to identify patterning rules.

6. Patterning spatial and temporal information

It has long been recognised that plants exploit algorithm-like patterns in their development (Prusinkiewicz & Hanan, 1989 ). We are only now beginning to uncover the complex mechanisms based on long-range transport and sensing of small metabolites, such as the ubiquitous auxin, in some sense the charge-carrier of the analogue ‘electronics’ steering plant development.

To integrate 4D imaging-based quantitative information of dynamic transcriptional or signalling networks, developmental atlases are arising as functional tools, complementary to computational modelling (Refahi et al., 2021 ). For instance, this coupling of approaches, allowing the precise spatial registration of auxin maxima and signalling in the shoot apical meristem, uncovered a novel mechanistic framework to explain phyllotaxis (Galvan-Ampudia et al., 2020 ).

Other examples include the formation of trichomes, the division profile of the stomatal lineage, the emergence of lateral roots and the positioning of root hairs. Such patterning processes often involve local signalling modules, with positive and negative feedback loops. Interestingly, while many of these networks build on biochemical interactions, as, for example, in reaction-diffusion Turing-like patterns, there is increasing interests in more holistic models that also include mechanics. For instance, lateral root emergence from the pericycle, and through cortical tissues, involves adjacent cells and their mechanical accommodation to such an invasion (Ditengou et al., 2008 ; Lucas et al., 2013 ; Vermeer et al., 2014 ). Similarly, the stomatal lineage patterning involves a tight control of polarity, which also involves large-scale patterns of tissue tension across the leaf (Bringmann & Bergmann, 2017 ). Finally, some of the feedbacks involved in patterning can be geometrical. For instance, it has been proposed that the positioning and size of the WUS-expressing domain at the shoot apical meristem depends on cytokinins diffusing from the epidermis, and thus scales with meristem shape (Gruel et al., 2016 ).

Importantly, integrated quantitative approaches also allow us to address how stereotypical patterns and organ shapes are. Defining stereotypes, in turn, paves the way to quantify the variability of morphogenesis, which is likely a crucial component per se of development (Waddington, 1942 ). In plants, mechanisms controlling specifically plasticity and robustness of development are starting to be explored (Hong et al., 2018 ), and will shed new lights on plant growth and form.

7. Shape plasticity

Whereas many animals can developmentally rest on their laurels after reaching maturity, plant morphogenesis is by definition an unfinished project. As such, postembryonic development is central to plant developmental biology. Organogenesis can be plastic and nonuniform, and organ shapes can respond to environmental cues. While in animals, symmetry, repeatability and scalability are key due to the importance of motion for animal survival, in plants instead plastic development in response to environmental conditions is central to plant fitness. It is this plasticity that enables plants, for instance, to generate new lateral roots where nutrients or water is found, yet save valuable resources by not investing in growth elsewhere.

Heterogeneity in growth, ranging from organ shape deformations to tropisms, are key to plant adaption. Organ or architecture plasticity is observed not only across plant evolution between species, but also within single individuals during development, or in response to changing environments. Such plasticity can also be predictable, meaning that quantitative approaches can measure, describe and help to understand its features. Toward this aim, robust shape descriptors have been developed. For instance, leaf shape plasticity has been assessed quantitatively in grapevine, using more than 5,500 leaves representing 270 vines from more than 11 species, to understand environmental impact (Chitwood & Sinha, 2016 ). Similarly, at the cellular level, careful cell shape description in 3D identified geometric cues predicting specific formative asymmetric division, shifting organism growth from 2D to 3D in a basal plant, the moss Physcomistrella patens (Tang et al., 2020 ).

Cell growth orientation and anisotropy, defining final cell shape, clearly determine asymmetric cell divisions, but also symmetric cell divisions in proliferative tissues, as cell division plane depends on geometrical and mechanical rules (von Wangenheim et al., 2016 ; Willis et al., 2016 ; Yoshida et al., 2014 ). As such, cell shape defines cell division patterns, which are key in various aspect of plant morphogenesis, such as stomata, root development or early embryogenesis in Arabidopsis. However, mutants displaying random cell division patterns, like tonneau , are still able to pattern normal fates territories (Traas et al., 1995 ), and embryo patterning occurs in monocots despite highly variable cell division patterns (Zhao et al., 2017 ). These examples suggest that supracellular mechanisms operate to control morphogenesis, as predicted by the organismal theory (Kaplan, 1992 ).

Shape robustness entails a control of organ shape plasticity to ensure reproducible final shapes while facing external and internal perturbations. This implies the coordination of heterogeneous cellular behaviours. This coordination involves various mechanisms ranging from mechanical stress to mobile morphogens controlled by cell-to-cell communications (e.g., Hervieux et al., 2017 ). Importantly, local cellular growth variability can be as well used by the plant to buffer shape variations at the organ or tissue level, as shown, for instance, during Arabidopsis sepal development (Hong et al., 2016 ), or leaf primordia initiation at the shoot apical meristem (Uyttewaal et al., 2012 ), with a primary role of the epidermis (Malivert et al., 2018 ; Zhou et al., 2020 ). Finally, shape definition during plant development is a multiscale and integrated process, which is plastic by nature. Indeed, the gradual production of new cells during iterative development imposes continuously new geometric, topological and mechanical constraints, which, in turn, canalise individual cells growth and shapes.

Plastic cellular patterns can rely on local fluctuations in gene expression, establishing thresholds determining cell fate trajectories. Indeed, the coupling of variations in gene expression and in cell fate has been observed for individual genes, such as ATML1 in leaf and sepal epidermal cells. In epidermal cells arrested in G2 phase of the cell cycle, when ATML1 level exceeds a certain threshold, endoreduplication starts, allowing differential cell growth (Meyer et al., 2017 ). Recent years have seen the rise of single cell transcriptome techniques. To obtain separate cells for single cell analysis, cell walls need to be removed (i.e., generation of protoplasts) quickly from plant tissues, whose effect on gene expression remains to be comprehensively assayed. Protoplasts are easy to extract from the root meristem of Arabidopsis, and therefore several papers describing the single cell transcriptome of that tissue have recently been published. These pioneering studies confirmed the identities of different cell types in the root meristem, but most interestingly, with the help of bioinformatics, they also revealed cell differentiation trajectories (Efroni et al., 2016 ). Differentiation of the stomatal lineage have also been addressed recently (Lee et al., 2019 ), showing that more and more plant tissues can be amenable to single cell transcriptomic approaches. Interestingly, differentiation trajectories can be mapped on pseudotime curves, by coupling single cell techniques to careful tissue staging, as recently shown for male germline precursors in maize (Nelms & Walbot, 2019 ). Through spatial transcriptomics (Duncan et al., 2016 ; Giacomello et al., 2017 ), we will obtain information on transcriptional programs during morphogenesis at a temporal and spatial resolution we thought impossible just a while ago. Such high-resolution transcriptome technology would allow us to understand how individual cells dynamically determine their cell fates in response to diverse inputs, such as nutrient amount mechanical stress and the dynamics of neighbouring cells, to actualise plastic plant development.

8. Mechanics behind growth and motion

A quantitative approach is also indispensable in the field of plant biomechanics. Cell growth is a classical and enlightening example of how quantitative descriptions and mechanical reasoning can shed light on a key biological process. It has been quantitatively studied since the 19th century, with experiments on osmosis by Wilhelm Pfeffer (1845–1920). Many control factors are involved (temperature, hormones, osmole concentration, oxygen etc.). Although turgor pressure is understood to be the force behind cell growth, its action appears contradictory: On the one hand, turgor pushes on the cell wall, promoting growth; on the other hand, it raises the water potential, inhibiting water entry into the cell. By modelling the cell wall as a viscoplastic material, Lockhart ( 1965 ) was able to combine these two opposite tendencies into a single equation, from which turgor is absent. In Lockhart’s equation, the relative growth rate becomes nonzero when the difference in osmotic pressure Δπ rises above a yield pressure P Y :

where φ is the extensibility of the cell wall and L is its relative hydraulic conductance. As argued by Green ( 1996 ), these two physical parameters enter the equation in a nonlinear way, which could not have been deduced from co-variation studies. Biophysical modelling, supported by quantitative data, was therefore a necessary step. Ortega ( 1985 ) added an elastic component to the equation, accounting for reversible changes in cell volume, which can be significant, for instance, in diurnal variations in tree stem diameter.

Another biophysical approach to cell growth is based on the principle of minimum energy (Hejnowicz, 2011 ). However, neither this nor the Lockhart–Ortega equation directly accounts for the effects of temperature, hormones or other factors. Actually, these factors act on the extensibility of the cell wall. Investigating the corresponding relationships requires more detailed models of the chemo-rheological processes occurring in the cell wall (e.g., Ali & Traas, 2016 ), assessed against quantitative data (Proseus et al., 2000 ).

Upscaling mechanical properties from a single cell to an organ(ism) is nontrivial. The whole structure has to be closely considered. Because cell walls are stiffer than protoplasts and are under tensile stress generated by turgid protoplasts, the apoplast is the load bearing and load transmitting part of the organ. The green organ can thus be regarded as made of a pressurised cellular solid, where the contribution of various organ tissues into its mechanical properties/stiffness depends on tissue distribution and structure. One of the first plant morphologists who studied biophysical aspects of plant structure and development was Hofmeister, who also noted that cell walls are under tension. His ‘ability to combine exceptional observational detail with an emphasis on experimental methodology’ (Kaplan & Cooke, 1996 ) was an early manifestation of quantitative plant biology. The structure of plant organs was studied from a mechanical perspective and looked at as a supportive system also by other pioneers of plant anatomy, such as Sachs and Simon Schwendener (1829–1919), although later these aspects of plant structure were generally neglected for decades (Romberger & Hejnowicz, 1993 ).

Mechanics also explains plant movements, such as the operation of contractile roots, the catapult-like action of fern sporangia (Noblin et al., 2012 ) or the closing of the Venus flytrap (Forterre et al., 2005 ). Some of these movements, including nastic ones, have important morphogenetic implications, for instance, to explain how leaves flatten as they grow (Derr et al., 2018 ). All these phenomena in living organisms have to be studied observing empirical rigors of physics, and thus contribute to quantitative plant biology.

As for biochemistry, mechanics is not only an output of the gene network, but also an input. Growth and geometry changes cause mechanical tension and stress during morphogenesis, and this, in turn, feeds back to tissue patterning (Heisler et al., 2010 ; Nakayama et al., 2012 ). A growing number of studies report that both short- and long-distance signalling between plant cells is accompanied by tension/stress sensing mechanisms enabling correct morphogenetic processes (Trinh et al., 2021 ). Because forces are invisible in essence, and as these regulatory mechanisms take place in three dimensions and at different timescales, computational modelling has become a vital tool to understand patterning processes ranging from the tissue, organ to whole plant scale.

Because plants develop ‘in-place’, they might be more geometry-aware than many other organisms. This is apparent even at the level of individual plant cells, which like plants themselves largely develop ‘in-place’. The unique properties of the semirigid plant cell wall, means that plant cells need to maintain and hence be able to sense their geometry often at a size scale of tens of microns. It is remarkable that Paul Green in a landmark paper (Green, 1962 ; Green & King, 1966 ) basically predicted the existence of cellulose microfibril reorientation by mechanical stress on the basis of his observations of the plant cell wall, even before microtubules were discovered (Ledbetter & Porter, 1963 ). Microtubules were later on found to guide the synthesis and orientation of cellulose microfibrils, which determine cell growth orientation, through live imaging (Paredez et al., 2006 ).

Not only the role of mechanical stress in development is well established (Green, 1999 ; Hamant et al., 2008 ; Lynch & Lintilhac, 1997 ), but it is also widely accepted that mechanics is at the basis of the supportive functional system of plant organs (Romberger et al., 1993). Noteworthy, plant organs are often prestressed constructions. Namely, an important role in this system is played by tissue stresses (Hejnowicz & Sievers, 1996; Kutschera, 1989 ), that is, the tensegrity at the organ level. The structural tissue stresses, an indirect result of the turgor pressure, exist in plant organs that are composed of turgid tissues that differ in cell size as well as thickness and mechanical properties of the cell walls.

Due to their size and perennity, trees are of special interest for plant biomechanics. As slender structures, they lend themselves well to engineering approaches like beam theory (Niklas, 1992 ). Prompted by the pioneering works of Schwendener (Schwendener, 1874 ), biomechanicians started to investigate the quantitative constraints put on tree growth by their own weight (Greenhill, 1881 ) or external loads like wind (Metzger, 1893 ). Trees greatly differ from engineered structures as they change their mass and size by large factors during their lifetime and experience a wide range of mechanical loads. In addition, they explore their environment and adapt to it (see, e.g., Alonso-Serra et al., 2020 ; Eloy et al., 2017 ). Defining integrative biomechanical traits makes it possible to quantify how well a tree is adapted to its environment and to infer which ecological strategy it follows (Fournier et al., 2013 ). This also illustrates how physics, engineering and plant ecology can work hand in hand.

9. Bioenergetics

As is the case for all living organisms, plant growth, development and physiology involve continuous dynamic energy conversion, abiding the laws of thermodynamics. Photosynthesis is the most important energy-harvesting process on Earth. By driving the flow of electrons extracted from water molecules through several highly organised photosynthetic complexes, sun energy is momentarily converted into two chemical energy currencies of the cells, ATP and NADPH. At the same time, it drives the assimilation of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur. The chemical energy generated from photosystems then fuels many anabolic metabolisms that promote the mechanisms behind plant growth described above.

As shown for other themes, cell bioenergetics is examined by quantitative approaches, such as absorption spectrometry, chlorophyll fluorescence, irradiance measurement, optical microscopy, gas analysis, electrodes or isotopic labelling. These methods allow the estimation of photosynthetic parameters, carbon assimilation rate, electron flows, metabolic fluxes, stomatal conductance or respiration rate (Fernandez-Jaramillo et al., 2012 ).

The acquired data are integrated into metabolic networks and flux-balance analysis models to describe energy metabolism in photosynthetic organisms (Cheung et al., 2014 ; Rügen et al., 2015 ). One example is the Farquhar, von Caemmerer and Berry model for predicting net CO 2 uptake (A) in C3 plants by linking A to the carboxylation rate of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP), oxygenation rate of RuBP and mitochondrial respiration in the light (Farquhar et al., 1980 ). This model, which has been cited more than 7,500 times since its publication 40 years ago, has been applied to a wide range of studies, from investigating C3 bioenergetics to predicting photosynthetic fluxes of ecosystems on a global scale.

In fact, the importance of modelling and quantitative studies of photosynthesis goes beyond the cellular, tissue or organismal levels. Field and global measurements of solar-induced vegetation fluorescence by recent remote sensing technologies using airborne sensors or satellite systems allow scientists to monitor the temporal and seasonal changes of vegetation and the fluxes of carbon, water and energy on a regional or a global scale, and to study the interaction between vegetation, primary productivity, environmental stresses and climate changes (Wu et al., 2016 ). Coupled with data gathered in the field, this opens many opportunities to bridge scales and revisit the essential role of plant productivity for our civilisation and ecosystem.

10. Integrating fluctuating and diverse abiotic environmental factors

Within a single day, plants may experience all kinds of challenges, including fluctuating light intensity and/or quality, temperature changes, wind, rain or snow. Each of such fluctuations in the surrounding environment factors may represent a threat to plants, unless dealt with properly.

The information contained in abiotic signals needs to be processed and integrated in order to arrive to developmental decisions. To elucidate this process, a quantitative systems approach is required, because the intricate interplay between the several parts of the signalling networks often escapes intuitive reasoning (Boer et al., 2020 ). There are numerous quantitative challenges related to: (a) learning the structure of environmental signal integration networks, (b) understanding the dynamic properties of these networks and (c) designing genetic changes to the network that would cause the plant to respond to environmental parameters in a specific way.

One of the most thoroughly studied abiotic response systems in plants is light and temperature signal integration. Plants sense the quantity and quality of light, for which a variety of photosensors are used ranging from the UV to the red part of the spectrum (Möglich et al., 2010 ; Paik & Huq, 2019 ). For instance, measuring the duration of the day by sensing dawn and dusk is important for the entrainment of the circadian clock (Seaton et al., 2018 ; Wenden et al., 2011 ). But also other responses, such as germination, de-etiolation, regulation of flowering and responses to canopy shade, are regulated by light sensing networks (Chen et al., 2004 ; Galvão & Fankhauser, 2015 ; Kami et al., 2010 ; Paik & Huq, 2019 ). Plants respond differently to different spectral distributions of the incident light, which is achieved not by the light sensors alone, but by an interplay between the sensors and their interacting factors, that is, by the light sensing network (Galvão & Fankhauser, 2015 ; Klose et al., 2015 ; Paik & Huq, 2019 ; Rausenberger et al., 2010 ). Due to this, the plant’s response to environmental light is a system property and cannot be understood by analysing the properties of the photoreceptors alone, besides simple cases.

A prominent example of this is phytochrome A (phyA) in Arabidopsis thaliana. The spectral response of phyA depends on the light intensity; for low intensities, phyA responds to red (660 nm) light, whereas for high intensities, it responds to far-red light (720 nm; Franklin et al., 2007 ). This intensity-dependent change of the spectral response without a change of the physical properties of phyA can only be understood, if one analyses the signalling network (Possart et al., 2014 ; Rausenberger et al., 2011 ; Schäfer, 1975 ).

The understanding of the light signalling networks and their different responses to the light spectrum is very challenging and requires joining the forces of experiments and mathematical modelling. This is even more true if one aims to unravel the integration and processing of light and temperature signals in plants. Plants are sensitive to temperature changes, and many aspects of plant growth and development respond to temperature, for example, hypocotyl elongation or flowering (Wigge, 2013 ). However, both processes are also sensitive to light, and therefore the temperature and the light signals need to be taken into account together.

In principle, temperature and light could be sensed by two separate networks, and the integration could be achieved through further downstream elements. Nevertheless, it has become clear that in Arabidopsis thaliana , temperature and light sensing and signal integration are done by the same network (Franklin, 2009 ; Jung et al., 2016 ; Legris et al., 2016 ; Seaton et al., 2018 ). Again, without mathematical analysis of the data and knowledge integration into dynamic mathematical models, progress in our conceptual understanding of how plants analyse ambient temperature and light conditions in a coordinated manner would be very difficult. The mathematical models allow for studying the effect of the different parts of the network, their interplay and role in the signal processing.

While dynamical systems approaches have been useful for understanding the interplay between temperature and light signal integration, many of the environmental signal integration networks in plants have been primarily interrogated with ‘Big Data’-based approaches that also provide insight into the structure and behaviours of signal integration networks. One research aim has been to infer the structure of large biological networks used in signal integration using transcriptomics data and either experimental or computational predictions of transcription factor binding (Brooks et al., 2019 ; Ezer et al., 2017 ; Gamboa-Tuz et al., 2018 ; Greenham et al., 2017 ; Walker et al., 2017 ). The resulting networks can be too complicated for us to easily comprehend how plants integrate environmental signals, and so there is an ongoing effort to identify submodules that perform specific environmental sensing and integration roles (Polanski et al., 2014 ).

When environmental signal integration networks are too complicated to model with dynamical systems, an alternative approach to understanding their behaviours is to directly predict phenotypic traits of interest from environmental input variables. Here, the aim is not to learn conceptually or model the precise network that plants use intrinsically to integrate signals, but rather to find a model that makes accurate predictions. These kinds of phenotypic forecasts have been especially useful in agricultural applications, where the primary aim of the researcher is to predict agriculturally relevant traits, given a certain set of abiotic environmental parameters. Innovations in this area come from deep learning techniques that integrate networks of sensor and satellite data (Aruul Mozhi Varman et al., 2017 ; Wang et al., 2018 ; Wolanin et al., 2020 ) and statistical advances that integrate more time-series environmental data into these models, taking into account that a plants’ response to an environmental stimulus is time-of-day and season-dependent (Brestovitsky & Ezer, 2019 ; Kocian et al., 2020 ; Newlands et al., 2014 ).

There are a number of open challenges related to the study of how abiotic factors are integrated by plants, which merit quantitative investigation. For instance, there is a limit to how many combinations of environmental parameters can be perturbed in an experiment, so there is a need for new tools to help scientists iteratively design experiments (Ezer & Keir, 2019 ). These would help them choose growth conditions that would help them learn as much as possible about how plants integrate environmental signals, while adhering to time and budget constraints. A second major challenge is to efficiently reverse-engineer specific responses to abiotic stimuli, so we can efficiently engineer crops that are sustainable in the light of climate change.

11. Ecosystem complexity: interactions with pathogens and microbiome

Plant phenotype goes beyond their individual body: to understand their biology, one needs to account for the myriad of living organisms with which they interact. This represents a large field of research, notably because of the threat posed by pathogens on plant development. Needless to say, quantitative thinking is also at the heart of such biotic interactions.

The research field of plant immunity is deeply rooted in crop sciences with phytopathology and breeding for disease resistance traits. The gene-for-gene hypothesis by Flor established the field under the concept of qualitative disease resistance: the presence or absence of a matching pair of host resistance gene and pathogenic avirulent factor determines the qualitative traits, resistance or susceptibility (Flor, 1942 ). This simple assumption has greatly contributed to the development of the plant immunity research field, resulting in a growing list of important immune receptors both in model and crop plant species and the deployment of such robust resistance traits in the crop fields.

Despite its initial contributions, the simple qualitative concept has been challenged with quantitative counterarguments. A resistance trait based on the one-on-one relationship would be predicted to break easily if fast-evolving pathogens come up with a strategy to overcome the resistance. However, most natural populations withstand stochastic pathogenic loads, reflecting their complex immune systems that would consist of resistance genes serving to recognise more than one pathogenic avirulent factor.

As the research field matures, evidence for the quantitative nature of disease resistance and plant immunity is accumulating. An obvious numbers game comes from a genomic view of plant immunity. Numerous genome sequencing datasets point out that the list of immune receptors on our hands, mostly discovered under the gene-for-gene concept, is only a tiny fraction of what a given plant species could carry. For example, out of approximately 160 genes belonging to NLR-type (formerly known as NBS-LRR) resistance genes found in Arabidopsis thaliana , only less than two dozen have been functionally assigned to resistance. The fraction of knowns in other species is far less than those found in the most well-studied model species (Kourelis et al., 2020 ). What are the functions of the rest of these unannotated immune genes present in the plant genome? Are they ‘reservoir’ immune genes that would ensure the plant populations to be ready for stochastic pathogenic pressures? In this sense, does the immune complexity revealed from the functional genomics of plant immunity research reflect the phenotypic plasticity wired in their immune network? How much is the contribution of cryptic genetic variation accumulated in the system to overall plant fitness? Can the complexity be utilised to develop durable resistance in the field?

The current research focus is shifting towards a systematic and quantitative approach to understand the robustness of the plant immune system. Recent molecular findings point to cooperative modules of immune receptors and a diffuse relationship between receptor and ligands in the plant immune system (Cesari et al., 2014 ; Karasov et al., 2014 ; Wang et al., 2015 ; Williams et al., 2014 ). These findings suggest that we should adopt a network view on plant immunity to better understand innate complexity in the plant immune system (Adachi et al., 2019 ).

Copious omics-driven large-scale research has revealed that despite an obvious expansion in the peripheral nodes of the network which accommodates diverse recognition modes, plants have evolved a core machinery that activates rather conserved immune responses (Hillmer et al., 2017 ; Mukhtar et al., 2011 ; Tsuda & Katagiri, 2010 ; Wessling et al., 2014 ). Characteristic plant immune responses often culminate in immunological cell death events that would dispose of the infected local areas, while the activation of immune responses in return sacrifice growth in general. The two topics, the canalisation of diverse recognition events to canonical immune responses and the trade-off between immunity and growth, are the major areas that could benefit from the quantitative approaches already implemented in other areas of biology, particularly in plant development and signalling.

If one can visualise characteristic immune responses, for example by defining and utilising immune responsive elements, detailed image analysis in a spatiotemporal manner would certainly uncover the hidden rules of immune signalling and cell death execution. Such details in immune responses in plants are expected to provide a way to modulate the responses to quantitatively pinpoint how much either acute or residual immune responses affect plant performance during the course of development. As local cell death could disturb the developmental system drastically, rerouting of developmental signalling in a quantitative matter would strengthen our understanding of phenotypic plasticity of plants under external stress.

Another important research area of plant immunity lies in its connection to field sciences. Microbial ecology is an inseparable research area from that of plant immunity. With recent advances in microbiome research platforms, the relative importance of the host-microbe interaction starts to be unveiled in its contribution to plant performance (Chen et al., 2020 ; Hacquard et al., 2017 ). Such efforts widen the past focus on plant–pathogen interactions to embrace different kinds of plant–microbe interactions including symbiosis. Definitely, the expansion of the plant immunity field to embrace the multitude of interactions between plants and microbes as well as between plant immune components will require sophisticated quantitative tools for analysis to build up a comprehensive view of the plant immune system.

12. Back to society: plants and humans

Engineering technology and approaches have always been a weighty facilitator of research and innovation in life sciences, including plant sciences. In turn, many areas of plant sciences are identified as the next frontiers of bioengineering, particularly in light of working towards mitigating climate disasters and realising a sustainable future (Wintle et al., 2017 ). The interface between biology and engineering can be classified into three types: engineering for biology, with biology and inspired by biology.

First, engineering can help biology with quantitative tools. It could be a totally new method, or more often a new improved version of an available technology. For example, how fast and cost-effectively we can sequence DNA has kept transforming the size of the datasets we can afford to produce, and hence the depth and breadth of information we can extract from them. Plant genomes tend towards the large end of the spectrum compared to ones from the other kingdoms (e.g., Nystedt et al., 2013 ). The phenotypic variation is high even within a species, which has prompted genomic sequencing of a collection of accessions (e.g., Alonso-Blanco et al., 2016 ). New bioimaging technology has revealed more and more about plant structures, ever since Robert Hooke saw ‘cells’ in oak cork. In the past 20 years, plant science has been leading the emerging field of morphodynamics. Community efforts to capture growth and development in 4D have kept improving the capacity in data acquisition, processing, extraction and analysis (e.g., Barbier de Reuille et al., 2015 ; Wolny et al., 2020 ). Phenotypic platforms have been developed, driving innovative solutions to capture morphodynamics in situ, generating a wealth of quantitative data. Even root development that occurs underground and is usually optically inaccessible has been visualised, with such technologies as transparent soil and CT scan protocols (Bao et al., 2014 ; Rellán-Álvarez et al., 2015 ). Satellite data, together with machine learning techniques, are increasingly used to monitor ecosystem evolution at continent scale (Newman & Furbank, 2021 ).

Bioengineering technology is not limited to hardware or data acquisition. Breakthroughs in in silico platforms for data processing, analysis and sharing underscore rapid progress in quantitative experimentation, lately including AI and machine learning. These are only few examples; engineering is constantly rewriting what is possible to find in the chemistry and physics of living organisms, and it has been driving biology towards quantitative data collection.

Second, engineering with biology involves a much deeper connection. Notably, through domestication, this corresponds to a form of co-evolution between plants and humans. Since the dawn of civilisation, people have indeed engineered food, drugs and other health remedies, materials and energy sources with living organisms, in the forms of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, fermentation and so on. Genetic engineering deepened the level of orientation towards engineering in that it is design-led.

In the past 20 years, the new field of ‘synthetic biology’ has been expanding rapidly in microbial classes first but later in multicellular systems including plants. Synthetic biology is sometimes called ‘engineering biology’, for its commitment to the engineering principles in design-led problem solving, such as simplicity, universality, efficiency, consistency and predictability. Because of its streamlined and user-considered designs, synthetic biology enables complex genetic engineering; small and well-characterised standard parts of promoters, terminators, functional coding sequences and logic gates all promote efficient cloning of many-part, multigene constructs. Simpler and faster genetic construction calls for large-scale and efficient, likely automated, characterisation platforms. Tools are constantly expanded (while each of them simplified); new technology, should it be CRISPR or directed evolution, is adopted quickly and transformed into usable and sharable parts. Predictability and reproducibility are overarching goals in synthetic biology, and thus predictive modelling plays a crucial role. Synthetic biology builds upon systems biology, or systems biology prompted synthetic biology; synthetic biology could be viewed as an experimental platform for systems biology, and systems biology as a theoretical platform for synthetic biology.

The two most major industrial applications of plant sciences—metabolic engineering and molecular breeding—entail complex genetic engineering to tinker with biosynthetic or developmental pathways that are controlled by multiple genes that often cross-regulate among themselves. As such, synthetic biology technology has already been employed to the pioneering crop engineering projects such as the GM omega-3 project, C4 Rice Project and RIPE (Realizing Increased Photosynthesis Enhancement) Project (Napier et al., 2014 ; Parry et al., 2013 ; Wang et al., 2016 ). Step changes in biotechnology and agriculture are anticipated, as more countries approve gene-edited organisms in their policy and regulation.

Development of universal standards is a key objective of the synthetic biology field, and plant synthetic biologists, in particular, have been leading the efforts to enhance community sharing. The unified design overhangs for standard parts to make DNA assembly compatible named PhytoBricks, and the simple and open material transfer agreement called ‘Open MTA’ were both proposed and developed by plant scientists first and then adopted by wider circles of synthetic biologists (e.g., the student genetic engineering competition iGEM and the largest DNA repository Addgene; Patron et al., 2015 ; Kahl et al., 2018 ).

Finally, biology can also inspire engineering. Among all the living organisms great and small that together exhibit a fantastic variety of functional and structural features, plants have been the primary source of inspiration for engineering. This may be due to their sessile nature. The plant mode of living is not as dependent on rapid and constant movement, and thus their structures are closer to engineered constructions. Many functional structures are made of no-longer living components and feasible to emulate via engineering. For example, the functional appendages that aid seed flight in winged or haired diaspores (such as of maples and dandelions) are made solely of the cell wall remnants of no-longer living cells. The intricate surface textures that confer differential functionalities, such as structural colour and hydrophobicity, are patterned with wax. In fact, the representative examples of biomimetic innovations, such as the burr-mimicking VELCRO and self-cleaning materials that resemble the lotus leaf surface, were inspired by plant structures (Koch et al., 2009 ). This trend continues in robotics, and plant tropisms motivated a large interdisciplinary consortium effort to create self-growing robots, which also embody sensors and modify their growth in response to physical cues from the environment (Fiorello et al., 2020 ).

Engineered mimics often highlight what we do not as yet know about the living structures that they emulate. Therefore, biomimetic engineering, as well as engineering with biology, can be used as learning via building . This is why in bioengineering, Richard Feynman’s famous words—‘What I cannot create, I do not understand.’—are so often quoted. Reconstruction and recapitulation are a highly effective process of redefining questions. The engineering investigative framework dictates the circular iteration of design–build–test stages. They are reminiscent of the modern scientific framework in which a question is defined as hypothesis that is tested via experimentation. The engineering cycle is indeed a variation of the general framework in research and project development of any kinds. However, there is a benefit to explicitly casting this concept onto applied and basic research in natural sciences, because of the emphasis on its interactive nature. Research typically does not end with the ‘test’ stage with a clear and definitive conclusion. Any project or scientific endeavour is not a linear process; rather, it is iterations of inquisition. There is no failure of a project; any sound scientific experimentation only brings us closer to new insights and findings about plants and how to apply such gained knowledge better.

13. Conclusion: a proposition

At the end, this overview of quantitative plant biology in the 21st century is an invitation to explore new paradigm changes in fields including high-resolution cell dynamics and computational reconstruction of gene networks, or plant and environment interactions through multiscale metamodels. This synthesis must also include yet another important player: the citizen. With the rise of participative science, notably through education and digital technologies, it appears that data acquisition, analysis and interpretation is more and more open to plant amateurs. This is facilitated by fair science and open access to data. By sharing lab and citizen data, new questions arise. How to deal with heterogeneous measurements, from people with different expertise? How to compare results obtained in controlled conditions but in small numbers and results obtained in the field in large numbers? Even more interestingly, situated knowledge, for instance, relating to agronomical practices, are now fuelling basic research in the labs. This notably includes the synergistic properties of varietal mixtures, an emerging field of study in genetics and ecophysiology. It seems therefore that quantitative plant biology is taking a turn from inter- to transdisciplinary research.

Building on this fertile field and these exciting developments, we proposed the founding of a new journal, Quantitative Plant Biology , that also includes a new transdisciplinary field of research, involving scientists and nonscientists. This will likely require new ways to coordinate between disciplines and community resources, for instance, when considering stock centres [special code repositories, coordination on file specifications (like SBML did for other areas of biology), and stock centres of synthetic biology parts, databases of images and shared software for image storage and analysis] or new standards in article format and reviewing (e.g., running scripts and models in published notebooks with the article, access to code and data). This will also require the formation of the next generation of inter- and transdisciplinarians. Several summer schools and workshops are supporting these efforts. We hope this open access journal, affiliated to both a public research institution like the John Innes Centre and a nonprofit publisher (Cambridge University Press), is the ideal forum for these stimulating endeavours.

Acknowledgement

We are thankful to our colleagues and the larger community for fruitful discussions on this topic.

Financial support

This work received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Authorship contributions

All authors contributed to specific sections of the article, and all reviewed the entire manuscript.

Data availability statement

Ethical standards.

All the authors comply with the journal’s publishing ethics.

• Abley, K. , Locke, J. C. W. , & Leyser, H. M. O. (2016). Developmental mechanisms underlying variable, invariant and plastic phenotypes . Annals of Botany , 117 , 733–748. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Adachi, H. , Derevnina, L. , & Kamoun, S. (2019). NLR singletons, pairs, and networks: Evolution, assembly, and regulation of the intracellular immunoreceptor circuitry of plants . Current Opinion in Plant Biology , 50 , 121–131. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Allard, Jun F. , Wasteneys, Geoffrey O. , & Cytrynbaum, Eric N. (2010). Mechanisms of self-organization of cortical microtubules in plants revealed by computational simulations. Mol Biol Cell 21 ( 2 ):278–86. doi: 10.1091/mbc.e09-07-0579. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ali, O. , & Traas, J. (2016). Force-driven polymerization and turgor-Induced Wall expansion . Trends in Plant Science , 21 , 398–409. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Alonso-Blanco, C. , Andrade, J. , Becker, C. , Bemm, F. , Bergelson, J. , Borgwardt, K. M. , Cao, J. , Chae, E. , Dezwaan, T. M. , Ding, W. , Ecker, J. R. , Exposito-Alonso, M. , Farlow, A. , Fitz, J. , Gan, X. , Grimm, D. G. , Hancock, A. M. , Henz, S. R. , Holm, S. , & Zhou, X. (2016). 1,135 genomes reveal the global pattern of polymorphism in Arabidopsis thaliana . Cell , 166 , 481–491. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Alonso-Serra, J. , Shi, X. , Peaucelle, A. , Rastas, P. , Bourdon, M. , Immanen, J. , Takahashi, J. , Koivula, H. , Eswaran, G. , Muranen, S. , Help, H. , Smolander, O. P. , Su, C. , Safronov, O. , Gerber, L. , Salojärvi, J. , Hagqvist, R. , Mähönen, A. P. , Helariutta, Y. , & Nieminen, K. (2020). ELIMÄKI locus is required for vertical proprioceptive response in birch trees . Current Biology: CB , 30 , 589–599.e5. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Araújo, I. S. , Pietsch, J. M. , Keizer, E. M. , Greese, B. , Balkunde, R. , Fleck, C. , & Hülskamp, M. (2017). Stochastic gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana . Nature Communications , 8 , 2132. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Aruul Mozhi Varman, S. , Baskaran, A. R. , Aravindh, S. , & Prabhu, E. (2017). Deep learning and IoT for smart agriculture using WSN. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Computing Research (ICCIC) (pp. 1–6).
• Avraham, R. , & Yarden, Y. (2011). Feedback regulation of EGFR signalling: Decision making by early and delayed loops . Nature Reviews. Molecular Cell Biology , 12 , 104–117. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bao, Y. , Aggarwal, P. , Robbins, N. E. , Sturrock, C. J. , Thompson, M. C. , Tan, H. Q. , Tham, C. , Duan, L. , Rodriguez, P. L. , Vernoux, T. , Mooney, S. J. , Bennett, M. J. , & Dinneny, J. R. (2014). Plant roots use a patterning mechanism to position lateral root branches toward available water . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 111 , 9319–9324. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Barbier de Reuille, P. , Routier-Kierzkowska, A.-L. , Kierzkowski, D. , Bassel, G. W. , Schüpbach, T. , Tauriello, G. , Bajpai, N. , Strauss, S. , Weber, A. , Kiss, A. , Burian, A. , Hofhuis, H. , Sapala, A. , Lipowczan, M. , Heimlicher, M. B. , Robinson, S. , Bayer, E. M. , Basler, K. , Koumoutsakos, P. , & Smith, R. S. (2015). MorphoGraphX: A platform for quantifying morphogenesis in 4D . eLife , 4 , 05864. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bassel, G. W. (2018). Information processing and distributed computation in plant organs . Trends in Plant Science , 23 , 994–1005. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bastien, R. , Bohr, T. , Moulia, B. , & Douady, S. (2013). Unifying model of shoot gravitropism reveals proprioception as a central feature of posture control in plants . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A , 110 , 755–60. 10.1073/pnas.1214301109. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Boer, M. D. , Santos Teixeira, J. , & Ten Tusscher, K. H. (2020). Modeling of root nitrate responses suggests preferential foraging arises from the integration of demand, supply and local presence signals . Frontiers in Plant Science , 11 , 708. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Brestovitsky, A. , & Ezer, D. (2019). A mass participatory experiment provides a rich temporal profile of temperature response in spring onions . Plant Direct , 3 , e00126. doi: 10.1002/pld3.126. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bringmann, M. , & Bergmann, D. C. (2017). Tissue-wide mechanical forces influence the polarity of stomatal stem cells in Arabidopsis . Current Biology: CB , 27 , 877–883. 10.1016/j.cub.2017.01.059. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Brooks, M. D. , Cirrone, J. , Pasquino, A. V. , Alvarez, J. M. , Swift, J. , Mittal, S. , Juang, C.-L. , Varala, K. , Gutiérrez, R. A. , Krouk, G. , Shasha, D. , & Coruzzi, G. M. (2019). Network walking charts transcriptional dynamics of nitrogen signaling by integrating validated and predicted genome-wide interactions . Nature Communications , 10 , 1569. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Carré, C. , Mas, A. , & Krouk, G. (2017). Reverse engineering highlights potential principles of large gene regulatory network design and learning . NPJ Systems Biology and Applications , 3 , 17. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cesari, S. , Kanzaki, H. , Fujiwara, T. , Bernoux, M. , Chalvon, V. , Kawano, Y. , Shimamoto, K. , Dodds, P. , Terauchi, R. , & Kroj, T. (2014). The NB-LRR proteins RGA4 andRGA5 interact functionally and physically to confer disease resistance . EMBO J , 33 , 1941–1959. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chakrabortty, B. , Willemsen, V. , Zeeuw, T. , Liao, C. , Weijers, D. , Mulder, B. , & Scheres, B. (2018). A Plausible Microtubule-Based Mechanism for Cell Division Orientation in Plant Embryogenesis . Curr Biol , 28 , 3031–3043.e2. 10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.025. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chen, M. , Chory, J. , & Fankhauser, C. (2004). Light signal transduction in higher plants . Annual Review of Genetics , 38 , 87–117. 10.1146/annurev.genet.38.072902.092259. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chen, T. , Nomura, K. , Wang, X. , Sohrabi, R. , Xu, J. , Yao, L. , Paasch, B. C. , Ma, L. , Kremer, J. , & Chen g, Y. , et al. (2020). A plant genetic network for preventing dysbiosis in the phyllosphere . Nature , 580 , 653–657. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cheung, C. Y. M. , Poolman, M. G. , Fell, D. A. , Ratcliffe, R. G. , & Sweetlove, L. J. (2014). A diel flux balance model captures interactions between light and dark metabolism during day-night cycles in C3 and Crassulacean acid metabolism leaves . Plant Physiology , 165 , 917–929. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chitwood, D. H. , & Sinha, N. R. (2016). Evolutionary and environmental forces sculpting leaf development . Current Biology: CB , 26 , R297–R306. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Clark, N. M. , Fisher, A. P. , Berckmans, B. , den Broeck, L. V. , Nelson, E. C. , Nguyen, T. T. , Bustillo-Avendaño, E. , Zebell, S. G. , Moreno-Risueno, M. A. , Simon, R. , Gallagher, K. L. , & Sozzani, R. (2020). Protein complex stoichiometry and expression dynamics of transcription factors modulate stem cell division . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 117 , 15332–15342. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Clark, N. M. , Hinde, E. , Winter, C. M. , Fisher, A. P. , Crosti, G. , Blilou, I. , Gratton, E. , Benfey, P. N. , & Sozzani, R. (2016). Tracking transcription factor mobility and interaction in Arabidopsis roots with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy . eLife , 5 , e14770. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Costes, E. , Smith, C. , Renton, M. , Guédon, Y. , Prusinkiewicz, P. , & Godin, C. (2008). MAppleT: Simulation of apple tree development using mixed stochastic and biomechanical models . Functional Plant Biology , 35 , 936. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cruz-Ramírez, A. , Díaz-Triviño, S. , Blilou, I. , Grieneisen, V. A. , Sozzani, R. , Zamioudis, C. , Miskolczi, P. , Nieuwland, J. , Benjamins, R. , Dhonukshe, P. , Caballero-Pérez, J. , Horvath, B. , Long, Y. , Mähönen, A. P. , Zhang, H. , Xu, J. , JAH, M. , Benfey, P. N. , Bako, L. , & Scheres, B. (2012). A bistable circuit involving SCARECROW-RETINOBLASTOMA integrates cues to inform asymmetric stem cell division . Cell , 150 , 1002–1015. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cummins, C. , Seale, M. , Macente, A. , Certini, D. , Mastropaolo, E. , Maria Viola, I. , & Nakayama, N. (2018). A separated vortex ring underlies the flight of the dandelion . Nature , 562 , 414–418. 10.1038/s41586-018-0604-2. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Decaestecker, W. , Buono, R. A. , Pfeiffer, M. L. , Vangheluwe, N. , Jourquin, J. , Karimi, M. , Van Isterdael, G. , Beeckman, T. , Nowack, M. K. , & Jacobs, T. B. (2019). CRISPR-TSKO: A technique for efficient mutagenesis in specific cell types, tissues, or organs in Arabidopsis . The Plant Cell , 31 , 2868–2887. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Deinum, E. E. , & Mulder, B. M. (2013). Modelling the role of microtubules in plant cell morphology . Current Opinion in Plant Biology , 16 , 688–692. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Deinum, E. E. , Mulder, B. M. , & Benitez-Alfonso, Y. (2019). From plasmodesma geometry to effective symplasmic permeability through biophysical modelling . eLife , 8 , e49000. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Derr, J. , Bastien, R. , Couturier, É. , & Douady, S. (2018). Fluttering of growing leaves as a way to reach flatness: Experimental evidence on Persea americana . Journal of the Royal Society Interface , 15 , 20170595. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ditengou, F. A. , Teale, W. D. , Kochersperger, P. , Flittner, K. A. , Kneuper, I. , van der Graaff, E. , Nziengui, H. , Pinosa, F. , Li, X. , Nitschke, R. , Laux, T. , & Palme, K. (2008). Mechanical induction of lateral root initiation in Arabidopsis thaliana . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 105 , 18818–18823. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Duncan, S. , Olsson, T. S. G. , Hartley, M. , Dean, C. , & Rosa, S. (2016). A method for detecting single mRNA molecules in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plant Methods , 12 , 13. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Efroni, I. , Mello, A. , Nawy, T. , Ip, P.-L. , Rahni, R. , DelRose, N. , Powers, A. , Satija, R. , & Birnbaum, K. D. (2016). Root regeneration triggers an embryo-like sequence guided by hormonal interactions . Cell , 165 , 1721–1733. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Eloy, C. , Fournier, M. , Lacointe, A. , & Moulia, B. (2017). Wind loads and competition for light sculpt trees into self-similar structures . Nature Communications , 8 , 1014. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Erickson, R. O. (1976). Modeling of plant growth . Annual Review of Plant Physiology , 27 407–34. [ Google Scholar ]
• Erickson, R. O. (1988). Growth and development of a botanist . Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology , 39 , 1–22. [ Google Scholar ]
• Evans, M. J. , Choi, W.-G. , Gilroy, S. , & Morris, R. J. (2016). A ROS-assisted calcium wave dependent on the AtRBOHD NADPH oxidase and TPC1 Cation Channel propagates the systemic response to Salt stress . Plant Physiology , 171 , 1771–1784. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ezer, D. , & Keir, J. (2019). NITPicker: Selecting time points for follow-up experiments . BMC Bioinformatics , 20 , 166. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ezer, D. , Shepherd, S. J. K. , Brestovitsky, A. , Dickinson, P. , Cortijo, S. , Charoensawan, V. , Box, M. S. , Biswas, S. , Jaeger, K. E. , & Wigge, P. A. (2017). The G-Box transcriptional regulatory code in Arabidopsis . Plant Physiology , 175 , 628–640. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fache, V. , Gaillard, J. , Van Damme, D. , Geelen, D. , Neumann, E. , Stoppin-Mellet, V. , & Vantard, M. (2010). Arabidopsis kinetochore fiber-associated MAP65-4 cross-links microtubules and promotes microtubule bundle elongation . Plant Cell , 22 , 3804–15. 10.1105/tpc.110.080606. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Farquhar, G. D. , von Caemmerer, S. , & Berry, J. A. (1980). A biochemical model of photosynthetic CO 2 assimilation in leaves of C3 species . Planta , 149 , 78–90. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fernandez-Jaramillo, A. A. , Duarte-Galvan, C. , Contreras-Medina, L. M. , Torres-Pacheco, I. , de J Romero-Troncoso, R. , Guevara-Gonzalez, R. G. , & Millan-Almaraz, J. R. (2012). Instrumentation in developing chlorophyll fluorescence biosensing: A review . Sensors , 12 , 11853–11869. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fiorello, I. , Del Dottore, E. , Tramacere, F. , & Mazzolai, B. (2020). Taking inspiration from climbing plants: Methodologies and benchmarks—A review . Bioinspiration & Biomimetics , 15 , 031001. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Flor, H. H. (1942). Inheritance of pathogenicity in Melampsora lini . Phytopathology , 32 ,653–669. [ Google Scholar ]
• Forterre, Y. , Skotheim, J. M. , Dumais, J. , & Mahadevan, L. (2005). How the Venus flytrap snaps . Nature , 433 , 421–425. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fournier, M. , Dlouhá, J. , Jaouen, G. , & Almeras, T. (2013). Integrative biomechanics for tree ecology: Beyond wood density and strength . Journal of Experimental Botany , 64 , 4793–4815. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Franklin, K. A. (2009). Light and temperature signal crosstalk in plant development . Current Opinion in Plant Biology , 12 , 63–68. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Franklin, K. A. , Allen, T. , & Whitelam, G. C. (2007). Phytochrome A is an irradiance-dependent red light sensor . The Plant Journal , 50 , 108–117. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Galvan-Ampudia, C. S. , Cerutti, G. , Legrand, J. , Brunoud, G. , Martin-Arevalillo, R. , Azais, R. , Bayle, V. , Moussu, S. , Wenzl, C. , Jaillais, Y. , Lohmann, J. U. , Godin, C. , & Vernoux, T. (2020). Temporal integration of auxin information for the regulation of patterning . eLife , 9 , e55832. 10.7554/eLife.55832. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Galvão, V. C. , & Fankhauser, C. (2015). Sensing the light environment in plants: Photoreceptors and early signaling steps . Current Opinion in Neurobiology , 34 , 46–53. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gamboa-Tuz, S. D. , Pereira-Santana, A. , Zamora-Briseño, J. A. , Castano, E. , Espadas-Gil, F. , Ayala-Sumuano, J. T. , Keb-Llanes, M. A. , Sanchez-Teyer, F. , & Rodríguez-Zapata, L. C. (2018). Transcriptomics and co-expression networks reveal tissue-specific responses and regulatory hubs under mild and severe drought in papaya (Carica papaya L.) . Scientific Reports , 8 , 14539. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Giacomello, S. , Salmén, F. , Terebieniec, B. K. , Vickovic, S. , Navarro, J. F. , Alexeyenko, A. , Reimegård, J. , LS, M. K. , Mannapperuma, C. , Bulone, V. , Ståhl, P. L. , Sundström, J. F. , Street, N. R. , & Lundeberg, J. (2017). Spatially resolved transcriptome profiling in model plant species . Nature Plants , 3 , 17061. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gooh, K. , Ueda, M. , Aruga, K. , Park, J. , Arata, H. , Higashiyama, T. , & Kurihara, D. (2015). Live-cell imaging and optical manipulation of Arabidopsis early embryogenesis . Developmental Cell , 34 , 242–251. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Green, P. , & King, A. (1966). A mechanism for the origin of specifically oriented textures in development with special reference to Nitella wall texture . Australian Journal of Biological Sciences , 19 , 421–437. [ Google Scholar ]
• Green, P. B. (1962). Mechanism for plant cellular morphogenesis . Science , 138 , 1404–1405. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Green, P. B. (1996). Transductions to generate plant form and pattern: an essay on cause and effect . Annals of Botany , 78 ,9–281. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Green, P. B. (1999). Expression of pattern in plants: Combining molecular and calculus-based biophysical paradigms . American Journal of Botany , 86 , 1059–1076. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Greenham, K. , Guadagno, C. R. , Gehan, M. A. , Mockler, T. C. , Weinig, C. , Ewers, B. E. , & McClung, C. R. (2017). Temporal network analysis identifies early physiological and transcriptomic indicators of mild drought in Brassica rapa . eLife , 6 , e29655. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Greenhill, A.-G. (1881). Determination of the greatest height consistent with stability that a vertical pole or mast can be made, and the greatest height to which a tree of given proportions can grow . Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , 4 , 65–73. [ Google Scholar ]
• Gruel, J. , Landrein, B. , Tarr, P. , Schuster, C. , Refahi, Y. , Sampathkumar, A. , Hamant, O. , Meyerowitz, E. M. , & Jönsson, H. (2016). An epidermis-driven mechanism positions and scales stem cell niches in plants . Science Advances , 2 , e1500989. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Guerriero, M. L. , Pokhilko, A. , Fernández, A. P. , Halliday, K. J. , Millar, A. J. , & Hillston, J. (2012). Stochastic properties of the plant circadian clock . Journal of the Royal Society Interface , 9 , 744–756. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hacquard, S. , Spaepen, S. , Garrido-Oter, R. , & Schulze-Lefert, P. (2017). Interplay Between Innate Immunity and the Plant Microbiota . Annu Rev Phytopathol , 55 , 565–589. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hamant, O. , Heisler, M. G. , Jonsson, H. , Krupinski, P. , Uyttewaal, M. , Bokov, P. , Corson, F. , Sahlin, P. , Boudaoud, A. , Meyerowitz, E. M. , Couder, Y. , & Traas, J. (2008). Developmental patterning by mechanical signals in Arabidopsis . Science , 322 , 1650–1655. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Heisler, M. G. , Hamant, O. , Krupinski, P. , Uyttewaal, M. , Ohno, C. , Jönsson, H. , Traas, J. , & Meyerowitz, E. M. (2010). Alignment between PIN1 polarity and microtubule orientation in the shoot apical meristem reveals a tight coupling between morphogenesis and auxin transport . PLoS Biology , 8 , e1000516. 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000516. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hejnowicz, Z. , & Romberger, J. A. (1984). Growth tensor of plant organs . Journal of Theoretical Biology , 110 , 93–114. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hejnowicz, Z. , & Sievers, A. (1996). Tissue stresses in organs of herbaceous plants. III. Elastic properties of the tissues of sunflower hypocotyl and origin of tissue stresses . Journal of Experimental Botany , 47 , 519–528. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hejnowicz, Z. (2011). Plants as mechano-osmotic transducers. In, Mechanical integration of plant cells and plants P. Wojtaszek (ed.) (pp. 241–267). Springer. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hématy, K. , Sado, P. E. , Van Tuinen, A. , Rochange, S. , Desnos, T. , Balzergue, S. , Pelletier, S. , Renou, J.-P. , & Höfte, H. (2007). A receptor-like kinase mediates the response of Arabidopsis cells to the inhibition of cellulose synthesis . Current Biology: CB , 17 , 922–931. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hervieux, N. , Tsugawa, S. , Fruleux, A. , Dumond, M. , Routier-Kierzkowska, A. L. , Komatsuzaki, T. , Boudaoud, A. , Larkin, J. C. , Smith, R. S. , Li, C. B. , & Hamant, O. (2017). Mechanical shielding of rapidly growing cells buffers growth heterogeneity and contributes to organ shape reproducibility . Current Biology: CB , 27 , 3468–3479.e4. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hillmer, R. A. , Tsuda, K. , Rallapalli, G. , Asai, S. , Truman, W. , Papke, M. D. , Sakakibara, H. , Jones, J. D. G. , Myers, C. L. , & Katagiri, F. (2017). The highly buffered Arabidopsis immune signaling network conceals the functions of its components . PLoS Genet , 13 , e1006639. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hong, L. , Dumond, M. , Tsugawa, S. , Sapala, A. , Routier-Kierzkowska, A.-L. , Zhou, Y. , Chen, C. , Kiss, A. , Zhu, M. , Hamant, O. , Smith, R. S. , Komatsuzaki, T. , Li, C.-B. , Boudaoud, A. , & Roeder, A. H. K. (2016). Variable cell growth yields reproducible OrganDevelopment through spatiotemporal averaging . Developmental Cell , 38 , 15–32. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hong, L. , Dumond, M. , Zhu, M. , Tsugawa, S. , Li, C.-B. , Boudaoud, A. , Hamant, O. , & Roeder, A. H. K. (2018). Heterogeneity and robustness in plant morphogenesis: From cells to organs . Annual Review of Plant Biology , 69 , 469–495. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false . PLoS Medicine , 2 , e124. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Jackson, M. D. B. , Duran-Nebreda, S. , Kierzkowski, D. , Strauss, S. , Xu, H. , Landrein, B. , Hamant, O. , Smith, R. S. , Johnston, I. G. , & Bassel, G. W. (2019). Global topological order emerges through local mechanical control of cell divisions in the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem . Cell Systems , 8 , 53–65.e3. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Jimenez-Gomez, J. M. , Corwin, J. A. , Joseph, B. , Maloof, J. N. , & Kliebenstein, D. J. (2011). Genomic analysis of QTLs and genes altering natural variation in stochastic noise . PLoS Genetics , 7 , e1002295. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Johnston, I. G. , & Bassel, G. W. (2018). Identification of a bet-hedging network motif generating noise in hormone concentrations and germination propensity in Arabidopsis . Journal of the Royal Society Interface , 15 , 20180042. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Jung, J.-H. , Domijan, M. , Klose, C. , Biswas, S. , Ezer, D. , Gao, M. , Khattak, A. K. , Box, M. S. , Charoensawan, V. , Cortijo, S. , Kumar, M. , Grant, A. , JCW, L. , Schäfer, E. , Jaeger, K. E. , & Wigge, P. A. (2016). Phytochromes function as thermosensors in Arabidopsis . Science , 354 , 886–889. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kahl, L. , Molloy, J. , Patron, N. , Matthewman, C. , Haseloff, J. , Grewal, D. , Johnson, R. , & Endy, D. (2018). Opening options for material transfer . Nature Biotechnology , 36 , 923–927. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kami, C. , Lorrain, S. , Hornitschek, P. , & Fankhauser, C. (2010). Light-regulated plant growth and development . Current Topics in Developmental Biology , 91 , 29–66. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kaplan, D. (1992). The Relationship of Cells to Organisms in Plants: Problem and Implications of an Organismal Perspective . International Journal of Plant Sciences , 153 , 28–37. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kaplan, D. R. , & Cooke, T. J. (1996). The genius of Wilhelm Hofmeister: The origin of causal-analytical research in plant development . American Journal of Botany , 83 , 1647–1660. [ Google Scholar ]
• Karasov, T. L. , Kniskern, J. M. , Gao, L. , DeYoung, B. J. , Ding, J. , Dubiella, U. , Lastra, R. O. , Nallu, S. , Roux, F. , & Innes, R. W. , et al. (2014). The long-term maintenance of a resistance polymorphism through diffuse interactions . Nature , 512 ,36–440. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Katul, G. , Porporato, A. , & Oren, R. (2007). Stochastic dynamics of plant–water interactions . Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics , 38 , 767–791. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kholodenko, B. N. , Hancock, J. F. , & Kolch, W. (2010). Signalling ballet in space and time . Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology , 11 , 414–426. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kimata, Y. , Kato, T. , Higaki, T. , Kurihara, D. , Yamada, T. , Segami, S. , Morita, M. T. , Maeshima, M. , Hasezawa, S. , Higashiyama, T. , Tasaka, M. , & Ueda, M. (2019). Polar vacuolar distribution is essential for accurate asymmetric division of Arabidopsis zygotes . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 116 , 2338–2343. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Klose, C. , Venezia, F. , Hussong, A. , Kircher, S. , Schäfer, E. , & Fleck, C. (2015). Systematic analysis of how phytochrome B dimerization determines its specificity . Nature Plants , 1 , 15090. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Koch, K. , Bhushan, B. , & Barthlott, W. (2009). Multifunctional surface structures of plants: An inspiration for biomimetics . Progress in Materials Science , 54 , 137–178. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kocian, A. , Carmassi, G. , Cela, F. , Incrocci, L. , Milazzo, P. , & Chessa, S. (2020). Bayesian sigmoid-type time series forecasting with missing data for greenhouse crops . Sensors , 20 , 3246. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kourelis, J. , Sakai, T. , Adachi, H. , & Kamoun, S. (2020). RefPlantNLR: A comprehensive collection of experimentally validated plant NLRs. Plant Biology . Preprint. Retrieved from http://biorxiv.org/lookup/doi/10.1101/2020.07.08.193961 . [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ]
• Kutschera, U. (1989). Tissue stresses in growing plant organs . Physiologia Plantarum , 77 , 157–163. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ledbetter, M. C. , & Porter, K. R. (1963). A ‘microtubule’ in plant cell fine structure . The Journal of Cell Biology , 19 , 239–250. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lee, L. R. , Wengier, D. L. , & Bergmann, D. C. (2019). Cell-type-specific transcriptome and histone modification dynamics during cellular reprogramming in the Arabidopsis stomatal lineage . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 116 , 21914–21924. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Legris, M. , Klose, C. , Burgie, E. S. , Rojas, C. C. , Neme, M. , Hiltbrunner, A. , Wigge, P. A. , Schäfer, E. , Vierstra, R. D. , & Casal, J. J. (2016). Phytochrome B integrates light and temperature signals in Arabidopsis . Science , 354 , 897–900. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lestas, I. , Vinnicombe, G. , & Paulsson, J. (2010). Fundamental limits on the suppression of molecular fluctuations . Nature , 467 , 174–178. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lockhart, J. A. (1965). An analysis of irreversible plant cell elongation . Journal of Theoretical Biology , 8 , 264–275. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Long, T. A. , Brady, S. M. , & Benfey, P. N. (2008). Systems approaches to identifying gene regulatory networks in plants . Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology , 24 , 81–103. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lucas, M. , Kenobi, K. , von Wangenheim, D. , Voβ, U. , Swarup, K. , De Smet, I. , Van Damme, D. , Lawrence, T. , Péret, B. , Moscardi, E. , Barbeau, D. , Godin, C. , Salt, D. , Guyomarc’h, S. , EHK, S. , Maizel, A. , Laplaze, L. , & Bennett, M. J. (2013). Lateral root morphogenesis is dependent on the mechanical properties of the overlaying tissues . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 110 , 5229–5234. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lynch, T. M. , & Lintilhac, P. M. (1997). Mechanical signals in plant development: A new method for single cell studies . Developmental Biology , 181 , 246–256. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Meicenheimer, R. , & Silk, W. K. (2006). In Memoriam: Ralph Erickson 1914 - 2006 . Plant Science Bulletin , 52 , 88–91. [ Google Scholar ]
• Malivert, A. , Hamant, O. , & Ingram, G. (2018). The contribution of mechanosensing to epidermal cell fate specification . Current Opinion in Genetics & Development , 51 , 52–58. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Menges, E.S. (1992). Stochastic modeling of extinction in plant populations . In Conservation biology 253–275. Springer, Boston, MA. [ Google Scholar ]
• Meroz, Y. , & Bastien, R. (2014). Stochastic processes in gravitropism . Frontiers in Plant Science , 5 , 674. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Metzger, C. (1893). Der wind als maßgebender Faktor für das Wachsthum der Bäume . Mündener Forstliche Hefte , 5 , 35–86. [ Google Scholar ]
• Meyer, H. M. , Teles, J. , Formosa-Jordan, P. , Refahi, Y. , San-Bento, R. , Ingram, G. , Jönsson, H. , JCW, L. , & Roeder, A. H. K. (2017). Fluctuations of the transcription factor ATML1 generate the pattern of giant cells in the Arabidopsis sepal . eLife , 6 , e19131. 10.7554/eLife.19131. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Möglich, A. , Yang, X. , Ayers, R. A. , & Moffat, K. (2010). Structure and function of plant photoreceptors . Annual Review of Plant Biology , 61 , 21–47. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Moukhtar, J. , Trubuil, A. , Belcram, K. , Legland, D. , Khadir, Z. , Urbain, A. , Palauqui, J. , & Andrey, P. (2019). Cell geometry determines symmetric and asymmetric division plane selection in Arabidopsis early embryos. PLoS Comput Biol , 15 , e1006771. 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006771. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Mukhtar, M. S. , Carvunis, A. R. , Dreze, M. , Epple, P. , Steinbrenner, J. , Moore, J. , Tasan, M. , Galli, M. , Hao, T. , & Nishimura, M.T. , et al. (2011). Independently evolved virulence effectors converge onto hubs in a plant immune system network . Science , 333 , 596–601. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Muller, B. , Guédon, Y. , Passot, S. , Lobet, G. , Nacry, P. , Pagès, L. , Wissuwa, M. , & Draye, X. (2019). Lateral roots: Random diversity in adversity . Trends in Plant Science , 24 , 810–825. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Nakayama, N. , Smith, R. S. , Mandel, T. , Robinson, S. , Kimura, S. , Boudaoud, A. , & Kuhlemeier, C. (2012). Mechanical regulation of auxin-mediated growth . Current Biology: CB , 22 , 1468–1476. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Napier, J. A. , Haslam, R. P. , Beaudoin, F. , & Cahoon, E. B. (2014). Understanding and manipulating plant lipid composition: Metabolic engineering leads the way . Current Opinion in Plant Biology , 19 , 68–75. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Nelms, B. , & Walbot, V. (2019). Defining the developmental program leading to meiosis in maize . Science , 364 , 52–56. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Newlands, N. K. , Zamar, D. S. , Kouadio, L. A. , Zhang, Y. , Chipanshi, A. , Potgieter, A. , Toure, S. , & Hill, H. S. J. (2014). An integrated, probabilistic model for improved seasonal forecasting of agricultural crop yield under environmental uncertainty . Frontiers in Environmental Science , 2 . 10.3389/fenvs.2014.00017. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Newman, S. J. , & Furbank, R. T. (2021). Explainable machine learning models of major crop traits from satellite-monitored continent-wide field trial data. Plant Biology . Preprint. Retrieved from http://biorxiv.org/lookup/doi/10.1101/2021.03.08.434495 . [ PubMed ]
• Niklas, K. J. (1992). Plant biomechanics: An engineering approach to plant form and function . University of Chicago Press. [ Google Scholar ]
• Noblin, X. , Rojas, N. O. , Westbrook, J. , Llorens, C. , Argentina, M. , & Dumais, J. (2012). The fern sporangium: A unique catapult . Science , 335 , 1322. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Nystedt, B. , Street, N. R. , Wetterbom, A. , Zuccolo, A. , Lin, Y.-C. , Scofield, D. G. , Vezzi, F. , Delhomme, N. , Giacomello, S. , Alexeyenko, A. , Vicedomini, R. , Sahlin, K. , Sherwood, E. , Elfstrand, M. , Gramzow, L. , Holmberg, K. , Hällman, J. , Keech, O. , Klasson, L. , & Jansson, S. (2013). The Norway spruce genome sequence and conifer genome evolution . Nature , 497 , 579–584. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ortega, J. K. E. (1985). Augmented growth equation for cell wall expansion . Plant Physiology , 79 , 318–320. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Paik, I. , & Huq, E. (2019). Plant photoreceptors: Multi-functional sensory proteins and their signaling networks . Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology , 92 , 114–121. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Paredez, A. R. , Somerville, C. R. , & Ehrhardt, D. W. (2006). Visualization of cellulose synthase demonstrates functional association with microtubules . Science , 312 , 1491–1495. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Park, K. , Knoblauch, J. , Oparka, K. , & Jensen, K. H. (2019). Controlling intercellular flow through mechanosensitive plasmodesmata nanopores . Nature Communications , 10 , 3564. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Parry, M. A. J. , Andralojc, P. J. , Scales, J. C. , Salvucci, M. E. , Carmo-Silva, A. E. , Alonso, H. , & Whitney, S. M. (2013). Rubisco activity and regulation as targets for crop improvement . Journal of Experimental Botany , 64 , 717–730. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Patron, N. J. , Orzaez, D. , Marillonnet, S. , Warzecha, H. , Matthewman, C. , Youles, M. , Raitskin, O. , Leveau, A. , Farré, G. , Rogers, C. , Smith, A. , Hibberd, J. , AAR, W. , Locke, J. , Schornack, S. , Ajioka, J. , Baulcombe, D. C. , Zipfel, C. , Kamoun, S. , & Haseloff, J. (2015). Standards for plant synthetic biology: A common syntax for exchange of DNA parts . New Phytologist , 208 , 13–19. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Plotnikova, A. , Kellner, M. J. , Schon, M. A. , Mosiolek, M. , & Nodine, M. D. (2019). MicroRNA dynamics and functions during Arabidopsis embryogenesis . The Plant Cell , 31 , 2929–2946. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Polanski, K. , Rhodes, J. , Hill, C. , Zhang, P. , Jenkins, D. J. , Kiddle, S. J. , Jironkin, A. , Beynon, J. , Buchanan-Wollaston, V. , Ott, S. , & Denby, K. J. (2014). Wigwams: Identifying gene modules co-regulated across multiple biological conditions . Bioinformatics , 30 , 962–970. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Possart, A. , Fleck, C. , & Hiltbrunner, A. (2014). Shedding (far-red) light on phytochrome mechanisms and responses in land plants . Plant Science , 217–218, 36–46. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Proseus, T. E. , Zhu, G. , & Boyer, J. S. (2000). Turgor, temperature and the growth of plant cells: Using Chara corallina as a model system . Journal of Experimental Botany , 51 , 1481–1494. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Prusinkiewicz, P. , & Hanan, J. (1989). Lindenmayer systems, fractals, and plants . Springer. [ Google Scholar ]
• Purvis, J. E. , & Lahav, G. (2013). Encoding and decoding cellular information through signaling dynamics . Cell , 152 , 945–956. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rausenberger, J. , Hussong, A. , Kircher, S. , Kirchenbauer, D. , Timmer, J. , Nagy, F. , Schäfer, E. , & Fleck, C. (2010). An integrative model for phytochrome B mediated photomorphogenesis: From protein dynamics to physiology . PLoS One , 5 , e10721. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rausenberger, J. , Tscheuschler, A. , Nordmeier, W. , Wüst, F. , Timmer, J. , Schäfer, E. , Fleck, C. , & Hiltbrunner, A. (2011). Photoconversion and nuclear trafficking cycles determine phytochrome A’s response profile to far-red light . Cell , 146 , 813–825. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Refahi, Y. , Zardilis, A. , Michelin, G. , Wightman, R. , Leggio, B. , Legrand, J. , Faure, E. , Vachez, L. , Armezzani, A. , Risson, A.-E. , Zhao, F. , Das, P. , Prunet, N. , Meyerowitz, E. M. , Godin, C. , Malandain, G. , Jönsson, H. , & Traas, J. (2021). A multiscale analysis of early flower development in Arabidopsis provides an integrated view of molecular regulation and growth control . Developmental Cell , 56 , 540–556.e8. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rellán-Álvarez, R. , Lobet, G. , Lindner, H. , Pradier, P.-L. , Sebastian, J. , Yee, M.-C. , Geng, Y. , Trontin, C. , LaRue, T. , Schrager-Lavelle, A. , Haney, C. H. , Nieu, R. , Maloof, J. , Vogel, J. P. , & Dinneny, J. R. (2015). GLO-roots: An imaging platform enabling multidimensional characterization of soil-grown root systems . eLife , 4 , e07597. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Romberger, J. A. , & Hejnowicz, Z. (1993). Plant structure: Function and development . Springer. [ Google Scholar ]
• Romberger, J. A. , Hejnowicz, Z. , & Hill, J. F. (1993). Plant structure: function and development . Springer Verlag , Berlin. [ Google Scholar ]
• Rose, K. E. , Rees, M. , & Grubb, P. J. (2002). Evolution in the real world: Stochastic variation and the determinants of fitness in CARLINA vulgaris . Evolution , 56 , 1416–1430. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rué, P. , Domedel-Puig, N. , Garcia-Ojalvo, J. , & Pons, A. J. (2012). Integration of cellular signals in chattering environments . Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology , 110 , 106–112. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rügen, M. , Bockmayr, A. , & Steuer, R. (2015). Elucidating temporal resource allocation and diurnal dynamics in phototrophic metabolism using conditional FBA . Scientific Reports , 5 , 15247. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Saxon, E. (2015). Beyond bar charts . BMC Biology , 13 , 60. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Schäfer, E. (1975). A new approach to explain the ‘high irradiance responses’ of photomorphogenesis on the basis of phytochrome . Journal of Mathematical Biology , 2 , 41–56. [ Google Scholar ]
• Schwendener, S. (1874). Das mechanische Princip in anatomischen Bau der Monocotylen: Mit vergleichenden Ausblicken auf übrigen Pflanzenklassen . Engelmann. [ Google Scholar ]
• Seaton, D. D. , Toledo-Ortiz, G. , Ganpudi, A. , Kubota, A. , Imaizumi, T. , & Halliday, K. J. (2018). Dawn and photoperiod sensing by phytochrome A . PNAS , 115 , 10523–10528. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Silk, W. K. (1984). Quantitative descriptions of development . Annual Review of Plant Physiology , 35 , 479–518. [ Google Scholar ]
• Tang, H. , Duijts, K. , Bezanilla, M. , Scheres, B. , Vermeer, J. E. M. , & Willemsen, V. (2020). Geometric cues forecast the switch from two- to three-dimensional growth in Physcomitrella patens . New Phytologist , 225 , 1945–1955. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Topham, A. T. , Taylor, R. E. , Yan, D. , Nambara, E. , Johnston, I. G. , & Bassel, G. W. (2017). Temperature variability is integrated by a spatially embedded decision-making center to break dormancy in Arabidopsis seeds . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 114 , 6629–6634. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Toyota, M. , Spencer, D. , Sawai-Toyota, S. , & Gilroy, S. (2018). Glutamate triggers long-distance, calcium-based plant defense signaling . Science , 361 , 1112–1115. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Traas, J. , Bellini, C. , Nacry, P. , Kronenberger, J. , Bouchez, D. , & Caboche, M. (1995). Normal differentiation patterns in plants lacking microtubular preprophase bands . Nature , 375 , 676–677. [ Google Scholar ]
• Trewavas, A. (2012). Information, noise and communication: thresholds as controlling elements in development. In Biocommunication of plants , 11–35. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. [ Google Scholar ]
• Trinh, D.-C. , Alonso-Serra, J. , Asaoka, M. , Colin, L. , Cortes, M. , Malivert, A. , Takatani, S. , Zhao, F. , Traas, J. , Trehin, C. , & Hamant, O. (2021). How mechanical forces shape plant organs . Current Biology: CB , 31 , R143–R159. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tsimring, L. S. (2014). Noise in biology . Reports on Progress in Physics. Physical Society (Great Britain) , 77 , 026601. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tsuda, K. , & Katagiri, F. (2010). Comparing signaling mechanisms engaged in pattern-triggered and effector-triggered immunity . Curr Opin Plant Biol , 13 , 459–465. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Uyttewaal, M. , Burian, A. , Alim, K. , Landrein, B. , Borowska-Wykręt, D. , Dedieu, A. , Peaucelle, A. , Ludynia, M. , Traas, J. , Boudaoud, A. , Kwiatkowska, D. , & Hamant, O. (2012). Mechanical stress acts via katanin to amplify differences in growth rate between adjacent cells in Arabidopsis . Cell , 149 , 439–451. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Vermeer, J. E. M. , von Wangenheim, D. , Barberon, M. , Lee, Y. , EHK, S. , Maizel, A. , & Geldner, N. (2014). A spatial accommodation by neighboring cells is required for organ initiation in Arabidopsis . Science , 343 , 178–183. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Verna, Carla. , Sree, Janani Ravichandran , Sawchuk, Megan G. , Nguyen, Manh Linh & Enrico, Scarpella , (2019). Coordination of tissue cell polarity by auxin transport and signaling Elife, 8, e51061. 10.7554/eLife.51061. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ]
• Vilches Barro, A. , Stöckle, D. , Thellmann, M. , Ruiz-Duarte, P. , Bald, L. , Louveaux, M. , von Born, P. , Denninger, P. , Goh, T. , Fukaki, H. , Vermeer, J. E. M. , & Maizel, A. (2019). Cytoskeleton dynamics are necessary for early events of lateral root initiation in Arabidopsis . Current Biology: CB , 29 , 2443–2454.e5. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• von Wangenheim, D. , Fangerau, J. , Schmitz, A. , Smith, R. S. , Leitte, H. , EHK, S. , & Maizel, A. (2016). Rules and self-organizing properties of post-embryonic plant organ cell division patterns . Current Biology: CB , 26 , 439–449. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Waddington, C. H. (1942). Canalization of development and the inheritance of acquired characters . Nature , 150 , 563–565. [ Google Scholar ]
• Walker, L. , Boddington, C. , Jenkins, D. , Wang, Y. , Grønlund, J. T. , Hulsmans, J. , Kumar, S. , Patel, D. , Moore, J. D. , Carter, A. , Samavedam, S. , Bonomo, G. , Hersh, D. S. , Coruzzi, G. M. , Burroughs, N. J. , & Gifford, M. L. (2017). Changes in gene expression in space and time orchestrate environmentally mediated shaping of root architecture . The Plant Cell , 29 , 2393–2412. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wang, A. X. , Tran, C. , Desai, N. , Lobell, D. , & Ermon, S. (2018). Deep transfer learning for crop yield prediction with remote sensing data. In, Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (pp. 1–5). Association for Computing Machinery. [ Google Scholar ]
• Wang, J. , Tian, L. , Madlung, A. , Lee, H.-S. , Chen, M. , Lee, J. J. , Watson, B. , Kagochi, T. , Comai, L. , & Chen, Z. J. (2004). Stochastic and epigenetic changes of gene expression in Arabidopsis polyploids . Genetics , 167 , 1961–1973. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wang, G. , Roux, B. , Feng, F. , Guy, E. , Li, L. , Li, N. , Zhang, X. , Lautier, M. , Jardinaud, M. F. , & Chabannes, M. , et al. (2015). The Decoy Substrate of a PathogenEffector and a Pseudokinase Specify Pathogen-Induced Modified-Self Recognition and Immunity in Plants . Cell Host Microbe , 18 , 285–295. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wang, P. , Vlad, D. , & Langdale, J. A. (2016). Finding the genes to build C4 rice . Current Opinion in Plant Biology , 31 , 44–50. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wang, X. , Ye, L. , Lyu, M. , Ursache, R. , Löytynoja, A. , & Mähönen, A. P. (2020). An inducible genome editing system for plants . Nature Plants , 6 , 766–772. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wessling, R. , Epple, P. , Altmann, S. , He, Y. , Yang, L. , Henz, S. R. , McDonald, N. , Wiley, K. , Bader, K. C. , & Glasser, C. , et al. (2014). Convergent targeting of acommon host protein-network by pathogen effectors from three kingdoms of life . Cell Host Microb ,e 16, 364–375. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wasteneys, G. O. , & Ambrose, J. C. (2009). Spatial organization of plant cortical microtubules: Close encounters of the 2D kind . Trends in Cell Biology , 19 . 10.1016/j.tcb.2008.11.004. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wenden, B. , Kozma-Bognár, L. , Edwards, K. D. , Hall, A. J. W. , Locke, J. C. W. , & Millar, A. J. (2011). Light inputs shape the Arabidopsis circadian system . The Plant Journal: For Cell and Molecular Biology , 66 , 480–491. 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2011.04505.x. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wigge, P. A. (2013). Ambient temperature signalling in plants . Current Opinion in Plant Biology , 16 , 661–666. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Willis, L. , Refahi, Y. , Wightman, R. , Landrein, B. , Teles, J. , Huang, K. C. , Meyerowitz, E. M. , & Jönsson, H. (2016). Cell size and growth regulation in the Arabidopsis thaliana apical stem cell niche . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 113 , E8238–E8246. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Williams, S.J. , Sohn, K.H. , Wan, L. , Bernoux, M. , Sarris, P.F. , Segonzac, C. , Ve, T. , Ma, Y. , Saucet, S.B. , & Ericsson, D.J. , et al. (2014). Structural basis for assembly and function of a heterodimeric plant immune receptor . Science , 344 , 299–303. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wintle, B. C. , Boehm, C. R. , Rhodes, C. , Molloy, J. C. , Millett, P. , Adam, L. , Breitling, R. , Carlson, R. , Casagrande, R. , Dando, M. , Doubleday, R. , Drexler, E. , Edwards, B. , Ellis, T. , Evans, N. G. , Hammond, R. , Haseloff, J. , Kahl, L. , Kuiken, T. , & Sutherland, W. J. (2017). A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering . eLife , 6 , e30247. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wolanin, A. , Mateo-García, G. , Camps-Valls, G. , Gómez-Chova, L. , Meroni, M. , Duveiller, G. , Liangzhi, Y. , & Guanter, L. (2020). Estimating and understanding crop yields with explainable deep learning in the Indian Wheat Belt . Environmental Research Letters , 15 , 024019. [ Google Scholar ]
• Wolny, A. , Cerrone, L. , Vijayan, A. , Tofanelli, R. , Barro, A. V. , Louveaux, M. , Wenzl, C. , Strauss, S. , Wilson-Sánchez, D. , Lymbouridou, R. , Steigleder, S. , Pape, C. , Bailoni, A. , Duran-Nebreda, S. , Bassel, G. W. , Lohmann, J. U. , Tsiantis, M. , Hamprecht, F. A. , Schneitz, K. , Maizel, A. , et al. (2020). Accurate and versatile 3D segmentation of plant tissues at cellular resolution. Elife . 29 ; 9 :e57613. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Woolfenden, H.C. , Bourdais, G. , Kopischke, M. , Miedes, E. , Molina, A. , Robatzek, S. , & Morris, R. J. (2017). A computational approach for inferring the cell wall properties that govern guard cell dynamics. Plant J , 92 , 5–18. 10.1111/tpj.13640. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wu, J. , Albert, L. P. , Lopes, A. P. , Restrepo-Coupe, N. , Hayek, M. , Wiedemann, K. T. , Guan, K. , Stark, S. C. , Christoffersen, B. , Prohaska, N. , Tavares, J. V. , Marostica, S. , Kobayashi, H. , Ferreira, M. L. , Campos, K. S. , da Silva, R. , Brando, P. M. , Dye, D. G. , Huxman, T. E. , & Saleska, S. R. (2016). Leaf development and demography explain photosynthetic seasonality in Amazon evergreen forests . Science , 351 , 972–976. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Yoshida, S. , Barbier de Reuille, P. , Lane, B. , Bassel, G. W. , Prusinkiewicz, P. , Smith, R. S. , & Weijers, D. (2014). Genetic control of plant development by overriding a geometric division rule . Developmental Cell , 29 , 75–87. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhao, P. , Begcy, K. , Dresselhaus, T. , & Sun, M.-X. (2017). Does early embryogenesis in eudicots and monocots involve the same mechanism and molecular players? Plant Physiology , 173 , 130–142. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhao, F. , Du, F. , Oliveri, H. , Zhou, L. , Ali, O. , Chen, W. , Feng, S. , Wang, Q. , Lü, S. , Long, M. , Schneider, R. , Sampathkumar, A. , Godin, C. , Traas, J. , & Jiao, Y. (2020). Microtubule-Mediated Wall Anisotropy Contributes to Leaf Blade Flattening . Curr Biol , 30 , 3972–3985.e6. 10.1016/j.cub.2020.07.076. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhou, L. , Du, F. , Feng, S. , Hu, J. , Lü, S. , Long, M. , & Jiao, Y. (2020). Epidermal restriction confers robustness to organ shapes . Journal of Integrative Plant Biology , 62 , 1853–1867. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ziliak, S. , & McCloskey, D.N. (2008). The cult of statistical significance: How the standard error costs us jobs, justice, and lives. University of Michigan Press .

Author comment: What is quantitative plant biology? — R0/PR1

RDP, ENS de Lyon, France

Dear Enrico,

Here is our opinion piece on the definition of Quantitative Plant Biology. Although most of the editorial board is involved, we still need to have external reviewers for this. Reviewers may simply give their opinion on areas we should have covered or important things we have missed or shortening suggestions (it’s quite long!).

Best wishes,

Review: What is quantitative plant biology? — R0/PR2

Elliot meyerowitz.

Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, United States

Comments to Author : This is a comprehensive review covering the remarkable array of research areas in plant biology that have and can in the future benefit from a quantitative approach. As such it is an invitation for paper submissions to the new journal for which it is written, and makes clear that quantitative plant biology covers a great diversity of research areas and approaches, papers from all of which are apparently invited.

The review also makes clear that what is meant by quantitative in this context is diverse, less by explicit discussion than by using the term “quantitative” to describe approaches to research to mean a multiplicity of different things. One is measurements of outputs such as gene expression levels, organ and cell shapes, growth rates, mutation and allele frequency changes, and much more. Another meaning given to quantitative in the review is the use of mathematical approaches to hypothesis testing, such as construction of differential equation models to simulate experimental outputs based on varied parameter changes. Yet another meaning is statistical evaluation of measurement variability, stochastic outcomes, and experimental significance. It is a fact that all of these are quantitative, or at least mathematical, as they involve numbers or equations – but they are very different things. All are apparently invited to the new journal, but perhaps it would be worth being explicit, early in the article, about what is meant by “quantitative approaches” to better organize the review, and to increase clarity about what exactly is meant by quantitative plant biology.

In this context, perhaps the authors could add a box, that lists some of the many possibilities discussed (and not discussed), so as not to interrupt the flow of text? In my mind I see a matrix with organization level (molecular, cellular, tissue, organismal, ecological) on one axis, and valid quantitative approaches (measurements of gene expression, protein levels and activities, shape, growth, image segmentation, mechanical properties, environmental inputs such as light intensity and spectrum, temperature, nutrition, pathogens…); modeling (differential equation, Boolean, Cellular Potts, omics, network analysis…); statistical analysis (of noise, variation, significance…) with possible examples or citations in each square, but I’m not sure this would be the best way to show the broad range of areas under consideration (and it may not be a finite exercise) – what, if anything, to do is up to the authors.

Another thing that could be added to the review is a bit more about why quantitative approaches are important or useful. The authors say that a quantitative approach “allows us to question and better understand our interactions with plants” and that a quantitative approach “serves as a framework to understand plant complexity and provides a systemic view of plant life.” I think they could go farther than this, and point out that quantitation leads to looking at and modeling correlations between different measurements, which is the way to form new hypotheses. Statistical approaches measure the strength of the correlations. Modeling then allows a preliminary test of the hypothesis in silico, with predictions tested again in experiments with quantitative results. While all along a statistical analysis assesses likelihood that the tests are meaningful, and allows measurements of noise and robustness. This is what a quantitative approach in the multiple senses used in this review means – an iterative approach of measurement, correlation, hypothesis, testing in silico and in vivo, back to the start. This approach applies at all levels of organization, from atomic to ecosystem.

A review should end with a bold proposal. This one does – the founding of a new journal, and a new transdisciplinary field of research, involving scientists and non-scientists. I think it may be worth expounding a bit more on this so as to emphasize what is being proposed, and to use the opportunity to address this new field to say even more about what types of explicit coordination between disciplines will lead to this new field, and what community resources will be necessary for success. Genomics needs stock centers, for example: does this new field need special code repositories, coordination on file specifications (like SBML did for other areas of biology), stock centers of synthetic biology parts, databases of images, shared software for image storage and analysis? Are new standards or types of paper review needed [and will we finally be able to see papers where the main text is the modeling, and the experiments only in the supplementary material?].

The proposal for this new field could go farther than a journal, to a recommendation (for scientists as well as their funding agencies) for a coordinated approach that will create the revolution in plant science that is necessary not only to understand plants, but to understand the principles of living things by comparison of plants to other kingdoms, and to use plants to ameliorate the environment and the human condition.

A few specific comments: first, a request for some light editing to align the text with English grammatical rules such as agreement of plurals and such – always an issue for an article with many authors of many different native languages, and something that perhaps the journal can provide.

In the abstract and again at the bottom of page 11, the term “systemic” is used, and I do not know what is meant by it in either context.

In the middle of page 6, I don’t see what is “counterintuitive” about losing a cellular response pathway when the signaling mechanism is abrogated.

At the top of page 11 it is stated that chemical signals between plant cells “typically move between cells through symplastic channels called plasmodesmata or via efflux

and influx transporters.” The typical signal is in fact a secreted peptide sensed by a transmembrane receptor kinase (of which there are many more examples known than of plasmodesmatal signals or those that require transporters). The peptide mode should be mentioned here with the others (it already is discussed earlier in the article).

At the bottom of page 15 the standard botanist’s description of animal development being complete at maturity really isn’t true for many animals, including for example tape worms, which constantly create new segments behind the scolex, just like a shoot meristem; or some annelids, which generate new segments throughout their lives from a posterior pygidium, just like a root meristem. There are even two species of worms (Ramisyllus multicaudata and Syllis ramosa) that branch like plants, from lateral buds. They reproduce from stolons at the end of the branches. The statement in the review can be fixed easily enough by just writing “many animals.” And I’ve had a bit of fun describing some of the exceptions!

At the top of page 26 there is a note to complete a sentence – “see sections of

XX/link to the other sites” – that needs to be dealt with.

The second line of page 30 has the phrase “fait science” – what does this mean?

Review: What is quantitative plant biology? — R0/PR3

Comments to Author : This is an excellent review. I have made some suggestions directly in the PDF. What i could recommend is perhaps a paragraph on education required to get more scientists/students into quantitative biology. One reason why quantitative biology has not picked up is current education often does encourage courses that incorporate this aspect. Something akin to phage biology course in Cold spring harbor I think which introduced biology to a lot of physicists and laid a ground work for molecular biology would be useful and commented on?

Recommendation: What is quantitative plant biology? — R0/PR4

Comments to Author : Dear Dr. Hamant,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to Quantitative Plant Biology. I read with great interest your work and the reviewers’ comments. Reviewer 2 had very few and very minor editorial suggestions; I leave to you whether they should be addressed. By contrast, Reviewer 1 offers very valuable insights on how to improve significantly the manuscript; I believe addressing those comments will greatly advance its impact. I would therefore like to ask you to take those suggestions into full consideration while preparing a revised manuscript.

At submission, please upload in addition to the revised manuscript:

(1) A point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments; please respond to all comments: if you disagree with some of them, please explain why that is so, instead of ignoring them.

(2) A version of your manuscript in which the changes made are clearly visible (e.g., a PDF of a DOC(X) file in which the changes made had been tracked with the "Track Changes" option).

I look forward to receiving your revised manuscript soon.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Enrico Scarpella

Associate Editor

Quantitative Plant Biology

Decision: What is quantitative plant biology? — R0/PR5

No accompanying comment.

Author comment: What is quantitative plant biology? — R1/PR6

Review: what is quantitative plant biology — r1/pr7.

Comments to Author : All of my earlier questions have been answered, and suggestions considered (and mostly taken). Two examples of the word "systemic" have survived from the previous version (Abstract line 2, and near the bottom of page 9. In both cases I think what is meant is "system-wide," but I am not entirely certain. I like the review very much - it is comprehensive (even encyclopedic) and serves as a broad-based introduction to the newly enlarged field, and the new journal. It is time to publish it!

Recommendation: What is quantitative plant biology? — R1/PR8

Comments to Author : Dear Dr. Hamant,

After reading your revised manuscript and your response to Reviewer 1’s comments, I am pleased to accept your manuscript for publication in Quantitative Plant Biology. My only suggestion would be that, at the proof editing stage, of clarifying the two instances of the unclear use of the word "systemic" Reviewer 1 refers to. Other than that, congratulations!

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Enrico Scarpella

Associate Editor

Decision: What is quantitative plant biology? — R1/PR9

Author comment: what is quantitative plant biology — r2/pr10.

This is a unique review on quantitative plant biology, much longer than the regular format in the journal. It should play its integrative role for this community, and may even be viewed as a written conference report on the past two decade work in this emerging field.

Recommendation: What is quantitative plant biology? — R2/PR11

Decision: what is quantitative plant biology — r2/pr12.

200+ Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students In 2023

STEM means Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, which is not the only stuff we learn in school. It is like a treasure chest of skills that help students become great problem solvers, ready to tackle the real world’s challenges.

In this blog, we are here to explore the world of Research Topics for STEM Students. We will break down what STEM really means and why it is so important for students. In addition, we will give you the lowdown on how to pick a fascinating research topic. We will explain a list of 200+ Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students.

And when it comes to writing a research title, we will guide you step by step. So, stay with us as we unlock the exciting world of STEM research – it is not just about grades; it is about growing smarter, more confident, and happier along the way.

What Is STEM?

Table of Contents

STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It is a way of talking about things like learning, jobs, and activities related to these four important subjects. Science is about understanding the world around us, technology is about using tools and machines to solve problems, engineering is about designing and building things, and mathematics is about numbers and solving problems with them. STEM helps us explore, discover, and create cool stuff that makes our world better and more exciting.

Why STEM Research Is Important?

STEM research is important because it helps us learn new things about the world and solve problems. When scientists, engineers, and mathematicians study these subjects, they can discover cures for diseases, create new technology that makes life easier, and build things that help us live better. It is like a big puzzle where we put together pieces of knowledge to make our world safer, healthier, and more fun.

• STEM research leads to new discoveries and solutions.
• It helps find cures for diseases.
• STEM technology makes life easier.
• Engineers build things that improve our lives.
• Mathematics helps us understand and solve complex problems.

How to Choose a Topic for STEM Research Paper

Here are some steps to choose a topic for STEM Research Paper:

Step 1: Identify Your Interests

Think about what you like and what excites you in science, technology, engineering, or math. It could be something you learned in school, saw in the news, or experienced in your daily life. Choosing a topic you’re passionate about makes the research process more enjoyable.

Step 2: Research Existing Topics

Look up different STEM research areas online, in books, or at your library. See what scientists and experts are studying. This can give you ideas and help you understand what’s already known in your chosen field.

Step 3: Consider Real-World Problems

Think about the problems you see around you. Are there issues in your community or the world that STEM can help solve? Choosing a topic that addresses a real-world problem can make your research impactful.

Step 4: Talk to Teachers and Mentors

Discuss your interests with your teachers, professors, or mentors. They can offer guidance and suggest topics that align with your skills and goals. They may also provide resources and support for your research.

Step 5: Narrow Down Your Topic

Once you have some ideas, narrow them down to a specific research question or project. Make sure it’s not too broad or too narrow. You want a topic that you can explore in depth within the scope of your research paper.

Here we will discuss 200+ Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students: 

Qualitative Research Topics for STEM Students:

Qualitative research focuses on exploring and understanding phenomena through non-numerical data and subjective experiences. Here are 10 qualitative research topics for STEM students:

• Exploring the experiences of female STEM students in overcoming gender bias in academia.
• Understanding the perceptions of teachers regarding the integration of technology in STEM education.
• Investigating the motivations and challenges of STEM educators in underprivileged schools.
• Exploring the attitudes and beliefs of parents towards STEM education for their children.
• Analyzing the impact of collaborative learning on student engagement in STEM subjects.
• Investigating the experiences of STEM professionals in bridging the gap between academia and industry.
• Understanding the cultural factors influencing STEM career choices among minority students.
• Exploring the role of mentorship in the career development of STEM graduates.
• Analyzing the perceptions of students towards the ethics of emerging STEM technologies like AI and CRISPR.
• Investigating the emotional well-being and stress levels of STEM students during their academic journey.

Easy Experimental Research Topics for STEM Students:

These experimental research topics are relatively straightforward and suitable for STEM students who are new to research:

•  Measuring the effect of different light wavelengths on plant growth.
•  Investigating the relationship between exercise and heart rate in various age groups.
•  Testing the effectiveness of different insulating materials in conserving heat.
•  Examining the impact of pH levels on the rate of chemical reactions.
•  Studying the behavior of magnets in different temperature conditions.
•  Investigating the effect of different concentrations of a substance on bacterial growth.
•  Testing the efficiency of various sunscreen brands in blocking UV radiation.
•  Measuring the impact of music genres on concentration and productivity.
•  Examining the correlation between the angle of a ramp and the speed of a rolling object.
•  Investigating the relationship between the number of blades on a wind turbine and energy output.

Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines:

These research topics are tailored for STEM students in the Philippines:

•  Assessing the impact of climate change on the biodiversity of coral reefs in the Philippines.
•  Studying the potential of indigenous plants in the Philippines for medicinal purposes.
•  Investigating the feasibility of harnessing renewable energy sources like solar and wind in rural Filipino communities.
•  Analyzing the water quality and pollution levels in major rivers and lakes in the Philippines.
•  Exploring sustainable agricultural practices for small-scale farmers in the Philippines.
•  Assessing the prevalence and impact of dengue fever outbreaks in urban areas of the Philippines.
•  Investigating the challenges and opportunities of STEM education in remote Filipino islands.
•  Studying the impact of typhoons and natural disasters on infrastructure resilience in the Philippines.
•  Analyzing the genetic diversity of endemic species in the Philippine rainforests.
•  Assessing the effectiveness of disaster preparedness programs in Philippine communities.

Read More 

• Frontend Project Ideas
• Business Intelligence Projects For Beginners

Good Research Topics for STEM Students:

These research topics are considered good because they offer interesting avenues for investigation and learning:

•  Developing a low-cost and efficient water purification system for rural communities.
•  Investigating the potential use of CRISPR-Cas9 for gene therapy in genetic disorders.
•  Studying the applications of blockchain technology in securing medical records.
•  Analyzing the impact of 3D printing on customized prosthetics for amputees.
•  Exploring the use of artificial intelligence in predicting and preventing forest fires.
•  Investigating the effects of microplastic pollution on aquatic ecosystems.
•  Analyzing the use of drones in monitoring and managing agricultural crops.
•  Studying the potential of quantum computing in solving complex optimization problems.
•  Investigating the development of biodegradable materials for sustainable packaging.
•  Exploring the ethical implications of gene editing in humans.

Unique Research Topics for STEM Students:

Unique research topics can provide STEM students with the opportunity to explore unconventional and innovative ideas. Here are 10 unique research topics for STEM students:

•  Investigating the use of bioluminescent organisms for sustainable lighting solutions.
•  Studying the potential of using spider silk proteins for advanced materials in engineering.
•  Exploring the application of quantum entanglement for secure communication in the field of cryptography.
•  Analyzing the feasibility of harnessing geothermal energy from underwater volcanoes.
•  Investigating the use of CRISPR-Cas12 for rapid and cost-effective disease diagnostics.
•  Studying the interaction between artificial intelligence and human creativity in art and music generation.
•  Exploring the development of edible packaging materials to reduce plastic waste.
•  Investigating the impact of microgravity on cellular behavior and tissue regeneration in space.
•  Analyzing the potential of using sound waves to detect and combat invasive species in aquatic ecosystems.
•  Studying the use of biotechnology in reviving extinct species, such as the woolly mammoth.

Experimental Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines

Research topics for STEM students in the Philippines can address specific regional challenges and opportunities. Here are 10 experimental research topics for STEM students in the Philippines:

•  Assessing the effectiveness of locally sourced materials for disaster-resilient housing construction in typhoon-prone areas.
•  Investigating the utilization of indigenous plants for natural remedies in Filipino traditional medicine.
•  Studying the impact of volcanic soil on crop growth and agriculture in volcanic regions of the Philippines.
•  Analyzing the water quality and purification methods in remote island communities.
•  Exploring the feasibility of using bamboo as a sustainable construction material in the Philippines.
•  Investigating the potential of using solar stills for freshwater production in water-scarce regions.
•  Studying the effects of climate change on the migration patterns of bird species in the Philippines.
•  Analyzing the growth and sustainability of coral reefs in marine protected areas.
•  Investigating the utilization of coconut waste for biofuel production.
•  Studying the biodiversity and conservation efforts in the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park.

Capstone Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines:

Capstone research projects are often more comprehensive and can address real-world issues. Here are 10 capstone research topics for STEM students in the Philippines:

•  Designing a low-cost and sustainable sanitation system for informal settlements in urban Manila.
•  Developing a mobile app for monitoring and reporting natural disasters in the Philippines.
•  Assessing the impact of climate change on the availability and quality of drinking water in Philippine cities.
•  Designing an efficient traffic management system to address congestion in major Filipino cities.
•  Analyzing the health implications of air pollution in densely populated urban areas of the Philippines.
•  Developing a renewable energy microgrid for off-grid communities in the archipelago.
•  Assessing the feasibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for agricultural monitoring in rural Philippines.
•  Designing a low-cost and sustainable aquaponics system for urban agriculture.
•  Investigating the potential of vertical farming to address food security in densely populated urban areas.
•  Developing a disaster-resilient housing prototype suitable for typhoon-prone regions.

Experimental Quantitative Research Topics for STEM Students:

Experimental quantitative research involves the collection and analysis of numerical data to conclude. Here are 10 Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For STEM Students interested in experimental quantitative research:

•  Examining the impact of different fertilizers on crop yield in agriculture.
•  Investigating the relationship between exercise and heart rate among different age groups.
•  Analyzing the effect of varying light intensities on photosynthesis in plants.
•  Studying the efficiency of various insulation materials in reducing building heat loss.
•  Investigating the relationship between pH levels and the rate of corrosion in metals.
•  Analyzing the impact of different concentrations of pollutants on aquatic ecosystems.
•  Examining the effectiveness of different antibiotics on bacterial growth.
•  Trying to figure out how temperature affects how thick liquids are.
•  Finding out if there is a link between the amount of pollution in the air and lung illnesses in cities.
•  Analyzing the efficiency of solar panels in converting sunlight into electricity under varying conditions.

Descriptive Research Topics for STEM Students

Descriptive research aims to provide a detailed account or description of a phenomenon. Here are 10 topics for STEM students interested in descriptive research:

•  Describing the physical characteristics and behavior of a newly discovered species of marine life.
•  Documenting the geological features and formations of a particular region.
•  Creating a detailed inventory of plant species in a specific ecosystem.
•  Describing the properties and behavior of a new synthetic polymer.
•  Documenting the daily weather patterns and climate trends in a particular area.
•  Providing a comprehensive analysis of the energy consumption patterns in a city.
•  Describing the structural components and functions of a newly developed medical device.
•  Documenting the characteristics and usage of traditional construction materials in a region.
•  Providing a detailed account of the microbiome in a specific environmental niche.
•  Describing the life cycle and behavior of a rare insect species.

Research Topics for STEM Students in the Pandemic:

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised many research opportunities for STEM students. Here are 10 research topics related to pandemics:

•  Analyzing the effectiveness of various personal protective equipment (PPE) in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses.
•  Studying the impact of lockdown measures on air quality and pollution levels in urban areas.
•  Investigating the psychological effects of quarantine and social isolation on mental health.
•  Analyzing the genomic variation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its implications for vaccine development.
•  Studying the efficacy of different disinfection methods on various surfaces.
•  Investigating the role of contact tracing apps in tracking & controlling the spread of infectious diseases.
•  Analyzing the economic impact of the pandemic on different industries and sectors.
•  Studying the effectiveness of remote learning in STEM education during lockdowns.
•  Investigating the social disparities in healthcare access during a pandemic.
• Analyzing the ethical considerations surrounding vaccine distribution and prioritization.

Research Topics for STEM Students Middle School

Research topics for middle school STEM students should be engaging and suitable for their age group. Here are 10 research topics:

• Investigating the growth patterns of different types of mold on various food items.
• Studying the negative effects of music on plant growth and development.
• Analyzing the relationship between the shape of a paper airplane and its flight distance.
• Investigating the properties of different materials in making effective insulators for hot and cold beverages.
• Studying the effect of salt on the buoyancy of different objects in water.
• Analyzing the behavior of magnets when exposed to different temperatures.
• Investigating the factors that affect the rate of ice melting in different environments.
• Studying the impact of color on the absorption of heat by various surfaces.
• Analyzing the growth of crystals in different types of solutions.
• Investigating the effectiveness of different natural repellents against common pests like mosquitoes.

Technology Research Topics for STEM Students

Technology is at the forefront of STEM fields. Here are 10 research topics for STEM students interested in technology:

• Developing and optimizing algorithms for autonomous drone navigation in complex environments.
• Exploring the use of blockchain technology for enhancing the security and transparency of supply chains.
• Investigating the applications of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in medical training and surgery simulations.
• Studying the potential of 3D printing for creating personalized prosthetics and orthopedic implants.
• Analyzing the ethical and privacy implications of facial recognition technology in public spaces.
• Investigating the development of quantum computing algorithms for solving complex optimization problems.
• Explaining the use of machine learning and AI in predicting and mitigating the impact of natural disasters.
• Studying the advancement of brain-computer interfaces for assisting individuals with
• disabilities.
• Analyzing the role of wearable technology in monitoring and improving personal health and wellness.
• Investigating the use of robotics in disaster response and search and rescue operations.

Scientific Research Topics for STEM Students

Scientific research encompasses a wide range of topics. Here are 10 research topics for STEM students focusing on scientific exploration:

• Investigating the behavior of subatomic particles in high-energy particle accelerators.
• Studying the ecological impact of invasive species on native ecosystems.
• Analyzing the genetics of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and its implications for healthcare.
• Exploring the physics of gravitational waves and their detection through advanced interferometry.
• Investigating the neurobiology of memory formation and retention in the human brain.
• Studying the biodiversity and adaptation of extremophiles in harsh environments.
• Analyzing the chemistry of deep-sea hydrothermal vents and their potential for life beyond Earth.
• Exploring the properties of superconductors and their applications in technology.
• Investigating the mechanisms of stem cell differentiation for regenerative medicine.
• Studying the dynamics of climate change and its impact on global ecosystems.

Interesting Research Topics for STEM Students:

Engaging and intriguing research topics can foster a passion for STEM. Here are 10 interesting research topics for STEM students:

• Exploring the science behind the formation of auroras and their cultural significance.
• Investigating the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy in the universe.
• Studying the psychology of decision-making in high-pressure situations, such as sports or
• emergencies.
• Analyzing the impact of social media on interpersonal relationships and mental health.
• Exploring the potential for using genetic modification to create disease-resistant crops.
• Investigating the cognitive processes involved in solving complex puzzles and riddles.
• Studying the history and evolution of cryptography and encryption methods.
• Analyzing the physics of time travel and its theoretical possibilities.
• Exploring the role of Artificial Intelligence  in creating art and music.
• Investigating the science of happiness and well-being, including factors contributing to life satisfaction.

Practical Research Topics for STEM Students

Practical research often leads to real-world solutions. Here are 10 practical research topics for STEM students:

• Developing an affordable and sustainable water purification system for rural communities.
• Designing a low-cost, energy-efficient home heating and cooling system.
• Investigating strategies for reducing food waste in the supply chain and households.
• Studying the effectiveness of eco-friendly pest control methods in agriculture.
• Analyzing the impact of renewable energy integration on the stability of power grids.
• Developing a smartphone app for early detection of common medical conditions.
• Investigating the feasibility of vertical farming for urban food production.
• Designing a system for recycling and upcycling electronic waste.
• Studying the environmental benefits of green roofs and their potential for urban heat island mitigation.
• Analyzing the efficiency of alternative transportation methods in reducing carbon emissions.

Experimental Research Topics for STEM Students About Plants

Plants offer a rich field for experimental research. Here are 10 experimental research topics about plants for STEM students:

• Investigating the effect of different light wavelengths on plant growth and photosynthesis.
• Studying the impact of various fertilizers and nutrient solutions on crop yield.
• Analyzing the response of plants to different types and concentrations of plant hormones.
• Investigating the role of mycorrhizal in enhancing nutrient uptake in plants.
• Studying the effects of drought stress and water scarcity on plant physiology and adaptation mechanisms.
• Analyzing the influence of soil pH on plant nutrient availability and growth.
• Investigating the chemical signaling and defense mechanisms of plants against herbivores.
• Studying the impact of environmental pollutants on plant health and genetic diversity.
• Analyzing the role of plant secondary metabolites in pharmaceutical and agricultural applications.
• Investigating the interactions between plants and beneficial microorganisms in the rhizosphere.

Qualitative Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines

Qualitative research in the Philippines can address local issues and cultural contexts. Here are 10 qualitative research topics for STEM students in the Philippines:

• Exploring indigenous knowledge and practices in sustainable agriculture in Filipino communities.
• Studying the perceptions and experiences of Filipino fishermen in coping with climate change impacts.
• Analyzing the cultural significance and traditional uses of medicinal plants in indigenous Filipino communities.
• Investigating the barriers and facilitators of STEM education access in remote Philippine islands.
• Exploring the role of traditional Filipino architecture in natural disaster resilience.
• Studying the impact of indigenous farming methods on soil conservation and fertility.
• Analyzing the cultural and environmental significance of mangroves in coastal Filipino regions.
• Investigating the knowledge and practices of Filipino healers in treating common ailments.
• Exploring the cultural heritage and conservation efforts of the Ifugao rice terraces.
• Studying the perceptions and practices of Filipino communities in preserving marine biodiversity.

Science Research Topics for STEM Students

Science offers a diverse range of research avenues. Here are 10 science research topics for STEM students:

• Investigating the potential of gene editing techniques like CRISPR-Cas9 in curing genetic diseases.
• Studying the ecological impacts of species reintroduction programs on local ecosystems.
• Analyzing the effects of microplastic pollution on aquatic food webs and ecosystems.
• Investigating the link between air pollution and respiratory health in urban populations.
• Studying the role of epigenetics in the inheritance of acquired traits in organisms.
• Analyzing the physiology and adaptations of extremophiles in extreme environments on Earth.
• Investigating the genetics of longevity and factors influencing human lifespan.
• Studying the behavioral ecology and communication strategies of social insects.
• Analyzing the effects of deforestation on global climate patterns and biodiversity loss.
• Investigating the potential of synthetic biology in creating bioengineered organisms for beneficial applications.

Correlational Research Topics for STEM Students

Correlational research focuses on relationships between variables. Here are 10 correlational research topics for STEM students:

• Analyzing the correlation between dietary habits and the incidence of chronic diseases.
• Studying the relationship between exercise frequency and mental health outcomes.
• Investigating the correlation between socioeconomic status and access to quality healthcare.
• Analyzing the link between social media usage and self-esteem in adolescents.
• Studying the correlation between academic performance and sleep duration among students.
• Investigating the relationship between environmental factors and the prevalence of allergies.
• Analyzing the correlation between technology use and attention span in children.
• Studying how environmental factors are related to the frequency of allergies.
• Investigating the link between parental involvement in education and student achievement.
• Analyzing the correlation between temperature fluctuations and wildlife migration patterns.

Quantitative Research Topics for STEM Students in the Philippines

Quantitative research in the Philippines can address specific regional issues. Here are 10 quantitative research topics for STEM students in the Philippines

• Analyzing the impact of typhoons on coastal erosion rates in the Philippines.
• Studying the quantitative effects of land use change on watershed hydrology in Filipino regions.
• Investigating the quantitative relationship between deforestation and habitat loss for endangered species.
• Analyzing the quantitative patterns of marine biodiversity in Philippine coral reef ecosystems.
• Studying the quantitative assessment of water quality in major Philippine rivers and lakes.
• Investigating the quantitative analysis of renewable energy potential in specific Philippine provinces.
• Analyzing the quantitative impacts of agricultural practices on soil health and fertility.
• Studying the quantitative effectiveness of mangrove restoration in coastal protection in the Philippines.
• Investigating the quantitative evaluation of indigenous agricultural practices for sustainability.
• Analyzing the quantitative patterns of air pollution and its health impacts in urban Filipino areas.

Things That Must Keep In Mind While Writing Quantitative Research Title 

Here are few things that must be keep in mind while writing quantitative research tile:

1. Be Clear and Precise

Make sure your research title is clear and says exactly what your study is about. People should easily understand the topic and goals of your research by reading the title.

2. Use Important Words

Include words that are crucial to your research, like the main subjects, who you’re studying, and how you’re doing your research. This helps others find your work and understand what it’s about.

3. Avoid Confusing Words

Stay away from words that might confuse people. Your title should be easy to grasp, even if someone isn’t an expert in your field.

4. Show Your Research Approach

Tell readers what kind of research you did, like experiments or surveys. This gives them a hint about how you conducted your study.

5. Match Your Title with Your Research Questions

Make sure your title matches the questions you’re trying to answer in your research. It should give a sneak peek into what your study is all about and keep you on the right track as you work on it.

STEM students, addressing what STEM is and why research matters in this field. It offered an extensive list of research topics , including experimental, qualitative, and regional options, catering to various academic levels and interests. Whether you’re a middle school student or pursuing advanced studies, these topics offer a wealth of ideas. The key takeaway is to choose a topic that resonates with your passion and aligns with your goals, ensuring a successful journey in STEM research. Choose the best Experimental Quantitative Research Topics For Stem Students today!

Related Posts

Step by Step Guide on The Best Way to Finance Car

The Best Way on How to Get Fund For Business to Grow it Efficiently