Paper: Dynamical Quorum Sensing and Synchronization in Large Populations of Chemical Oscillators

Science 30 January 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5914, pp. 614 - 617
DOI: 10.1126/science.1166253

Dynamical Quorum Sensing and Synchronization in Large Populations of
Chemical Oscillators

Annette F. Taylor 1, Mark R. Tinsley 2, Fang Wang 2, Zhaoyang Huang 2,
Kenneth Showalter 2

Abstract:
Populations of certain unicellular organisms, such as suspensions of yeast
in nutrient solutions, undergo transitions to coordinated activity with
increasing cell density. The collective behavior is believed to arise
through communication by chemical signaling via the extracellular solution.
We studied large, heterogeneous populations of discrete chemical oscillators
(100,000) with well-defined kinetics to characterize two different types of
density-dependent transitions to synchronized oscillatory behavior. For
different chemical exchange rates between the oscillators and the
surrounding solution, increasing oscillator density led to (i) the gradual
synchronization of oscillatory activity, or (ii) the sudden "switching on"
of synchronized oscillatory activity. We analyze the roles of oscillator
density and exchange rate of signaling species in these transitions with a
mathematical model of the interacting chemical oscillators.

1 School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
2 C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry, West Virginia University,
Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.

Source: Science
e.1166253
Comment:
A form of Proto-Life? (a mucher simpler question when using my model of
life...)

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek


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