Nonlinear Spatiotemporal Patterns in Globally Coupled Reaction-Diffusion Systems

Schöll, Eckehard

doi:10.1007/3-540-45396-2_39

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Some of the features that we have observed in cell polarization have been considered in previous works, such as the fact that equations of the form (1) are relevant for the description of systems of bistable chemical reactions [29,36], and that global couplings in activator-inhibitor reaction-diffusion systems may lead to the formation of stable spatiotemporal patterns [14,30]. The peculiar properties of such systems have led to the use of the term excitable or active media.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Universal features of cell polarization processes

et al. 2009

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Cell polarization plays a central role in the development of complex organisms. It has been recently shown that cell polarization may follow from the proximity to a phase separation instability in a bistable network of chemical reactions. An example which has been thoroughly studied is the formation of signaling domains during eukaryotic chemotaxis. In this case, the process of domain growth may be described by the use of a constrained time-dependent Landau-Ginzburg equation, admitting scale-invariant solutionsà la Lifshitz and Slyozov. The constraint results here from a mechanism of fast cycling of molecules between a cytosolic, inactive state and a membrane-bound, active state, which dynamically tunes the chemical potential for membrane binding to a value corresponding to the coexistence of different phases on the cell membrane. We provide here a universal description of this process both in the presence and absence of a gradient in the external activation field. Universal power laws are derived for the time needed for the cell to polarize in a chemotactic gradient, and for the value of the smallest detectable gradient. We also describe a concrete realization of our scheme based on the analysis of available biochemical and biophysical data.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%