How Yeast Cells Synchronize their Glycolytic Oscillations: A Perturbation Analytic Treatment

Abstract

Of all the lifeforms that obtain their energy from glycolysis, yeast cells are among the most basic. Under certain conditions the concentrations of the glycolytic intermediates in yeast cells can oscillate. Individual yeast cells in a suspension can synchronize their oscillations to get in phase with each other. Although the glycolytic oscillations originate in the upper part of the glycolytic chain, the signaling agent in this synchronization appears to be acetaldehyde, a membrane-permeating metabolite at the bottom of the anaerobic part of the glycolytic chain. Here we address the issue of how a metabolite remote from the pacemaking origin of the oscillation may nevertheless control the synchronization. We present a quantitative model for glycolytic oscillations and their synchronization in terms of chemical kinetics. We show that, in essence, the common acetaldehyde concentration can be modeled as a small perturbation on the "pacemaker" whose effect on the period of the oscillations of cells in the same suspension is indeed such that a synchronization develops.

Nonequilibrium first-order phase transition in coupled oscillator systems with inertia and noise

“…This many-body cooperative effect is observed in many physical and biological systems, pervading length and time scales of several orders of magnitude. Some examples are metabolic synchrony in yeast cell suspensions [1], synchronized firings of cardiac pacemaker cells [2], flashing in unison by groups of fireflies [3], voltage oscillations at a common frequency in an array of current-biased Josephson junctions [4], phase synchronization in electrical power distribution networks [5][6][7], rhythmic applause [8], animal flocking behavior [9]; see Ref. [10] for a recent survey.…”

Introduction to dynamical systems

“…The MATLAB script "euler.m" uses Euler's method to integrate the differential equation dx/dt = a -bx, x(0) = c. Using this script as a template, implement the model of yeast glycolytic oscillations (Slide 34) (8).…”

“…The first requires the students to implement a simple model of yeast glycolytic oscillations (8 The Supplementary Materials contain a MATLAB script (euler.m) that can assist the students in completing the homework assignment.…”

Coupling of the cell cycle and metabolism in yeast cell-cycle-related oscillations via resource criticality and checkpoint gating

“…There are clearly different types of YMO, and these have been called by different names (Bier, Bakker, & Westerhoff, 2000;De Monte, d'Ovidio, Danø, & Sørensen, 2007;Keulers, Satroutdinov, Sazuki, & Kuriyama, 1996). Several authors classify oscillations as 'glycolytic', 'respiratory' or 'cellcycle-related' (Henson, 2005).…”