AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 245, Issue 4 478-R483, Copyright © 1983 by American Physiological Society
Temporal self-organization in biochemical systems: periodic behavior vs. chaos
A. Goldbeter and O. Decroly
The patterns of temporal self-organization in regulated biochemical systems
are examined. Simple periodic oscillations are the most frequent type of
such organization, as exemplified by glycolytic oscillations in yeast and
muscle and by the periodic synthesis of adenosine 3',5'-cyclic
monophosphate in Dictyostelium discoideum amoebas. These phenomena
originate, respectively, from the periodic operation of the
product-activated phosphofructokinase and adenylate cyclase reactions. The
analysis of a model for a multiply regulated biochemical system shows more
complex oscillatory phenomena, e.g., the coexistence between two stable
periodic regimes for the same set of parameter values (birhythmicity) and
chaos. The latter phenomenon of aperiodic oscillations occurs in a narrow
range of parameter values and is much less frequent than simple or complex
periodic behavior. It is suggested that a sufficient condition for the
occurrence of birhythmicity and chaos in a regulated biological system
subjected to a constant environment (i.e., in the absence of periodic
forcing) may be the simultaneous presence and interaction of two mechanisms
capable of producing oscillations.
