V1-morph

An V1-morph is an organism that changes in shape during growth such that its surface area is proportional to its volume to the power 1, so to its volume. In most cases both volume and surface area are proportional to length

The reason the concept is important in the context of the Dynamic Energy Budget theory is that food (substrate) uptake is proportional to surface area, and maintenance to volume. The surface area that is of importance is that part that is involved in substrate uptake.Since uptake is proportional to maintenance for V1-morphs, there is no size control, and an organism grows exponentially at constant food (substrate) availability.

Filaments, such as fungi that form hyphae growing in length, but not in diameter, are examples of V1-morphs. Sheets that extend, but do not change in thickness, like some colonial bacteria and algae, are another example.

An important property of V1-morphs is that the distinction between the individual and the population level disappears; a single long filament grows as fast as many small ones of the same diameter and the same total length.

Morph

Morph may refer to:

Astronomy

Biology

Computing

Fiction

Technology

Music

See also

Morph (animation)

Morph is a clay stop-motion comedy animation, featuring the eponymous character that appeared with Tony Hart, beginning in 1977, on several of his UK TV programmes, notably Take Hart and Hartbeat.

History

Morph was produced for the BBC by Aardman Animations, later famous for the "Sledgehammer" music video and Wallace and Gromit. Morph appeared mainly in one-minute "shorts" interspersed throughout the show. These were connected to the main show by having Hart deliver a line or two to Morph who would reply in gobbledygook but with meaningful gestures. Later on, Morph was joined by cream-coloured Chas, who was much more badly behaved.

Morph can change shape, he would become spheres in order to move around, or extrude into cylinders to pass to different levels. He can also mimic other objects, or creatures. Morph lived in a wooden microscope box on an artists desk, and he and Chas both loved to eat cake, as seen in many of the shorts.

Some of the early plasticine models of Morph were destroyed in a fire at the warehouse they were being stored on 10 October 2005.

Polymorphism (biology)

Polymorphism in biology and zoology is the occurrence of two or more clearly different morphs or forms, also referred to as alternative phenotypes, in the population of a species. In order to be classified as such, morphs must occupy the same habitat at the same time and belong to a panmictic population (one with random mating).

Three mechanisms may cause polymorphism:

Polymorphism as used in zoology and biology involves morphs of the phenotype. The term genetic polymorphism is also used somewhat differently by geneticists and molecular biologists to describe certain mutations in the genotype, such as SNPs (with detection methods RFLPs and AFLPs), that may not always correspond to a phenotype but always corresponds to a branch in the genetic tree. See below.