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Autonomous chaotic behaviour of the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum predicted by a model for cyclic AMP signalling

Nature volume 313, pages 590–592 (1985)Cite this article

Abstract

How sustained oscillations lose their periodicity and thus give rise to chaos was first analysed in mathematical models1–3, then observed in chemical systems such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction4,5 where chaos is autonomous because it originates from endogenous kinetic mechanisms. In contrast, chaos can also be obtained by periodically forcing an oscillatory system, as shown, for example, in cardiac cells6 and yeast glycolysis7. Biochemical evidence for autonomous chaos has been obtained both in vitro for the peroxidase reaction8 and in enzymatic models9,10 not based directly on experimental systems. We report here the occurrence of autonomous chaos in a realistic model for the cyclic AMP signalling system of the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum11–13, based on receptor modification. This model14 is also capable of bursting, a phenomenon characteristic of some pacemaker neurones such as R15 in Aplysia15. Whereas bursting has not been observed in D. discoideum, our model suggests that ‘aperiodic signalling’16 in the mutant Fr17 provides the first example of autonomous chaos occurring spontaneously at the cellular level.

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  1. Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine, CP 231, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium

    J. L. Martiel & A. Goldbeter

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  1. J. L. Martiel
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  2. A. Goldbeter
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Martiel, J., Goldbeter, A. Autonomous chaotic behaviour of the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum predicted by a model for cyclic AMP signalling. Nature 313, 590–592 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/313590a0

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