A tilted plant, even in the absence of light, curves to erect its aerial part. This movement, called gravitropism, is a fundamental process.

I modeled the bending and straightening of a rod-like organ and compared it with the gravitropism kinematics of different organs from 11 angiosperms. I showed that gravitropic straightening shares common traits across species, organs, and orders of magnitude. With the help of minimal dynamic model, i discovered that the sensing of the gravity alone cannot account for the common traits of the movement and demonstrated the existence of a mechanism of sensing of the curvature, called proprioception.