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Sustained oscillations in living cells

Nature volume 402, pages 320–322 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Glycolytic oscillations in yeast have been studied for many years simply by adding a glucose pulse to a suspension of cells and measuring the resulting transient oscillations of NADH1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. Here we show, using a suspension of yeast cells, that living cells can be kept in a well defined oscillating state indefinitely when starved cells, glucose and cyanide are pumped into a cuvette with outflow of surplus liquid. Our results show that the transitions between stationary and oscillatory behaviour are uniquely described mathematically by the Hopf bifurcation13. This result characterizes the dynamical properties close to the transition point. Our perturbation experiments show that the cells remain strongly coupled very close to the transition. Therefore, the transition takes place in each of the cells and is not a desynchronization phenomenon. With these two observations, a study of the kinetic details of glycolysis, as it actually takes place in a living cell, is possible using experiments designed in the framework of nonlinear dynamics. Acetaldehyde is known to synchronize the oscillations10. Our results show that glucose is another messenger substance, as long as the glucose transporter is not saturated.

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Figure 1: The experimental setup.
Figure 2: Sustained oscillations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Figure 3: Plot of the square of the amplitude A as a function of glucose flow rate.
Figure 4: Fluorescence traces showing the response to instantaneous addition of extracellular glucose or acetaldehyde.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Teusink for advice on the growth and handling of the yeast cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and CATS, H.C. Ørsted Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, Copenhagen, DK-2100, Denmark

    Sune Danø, Preben Graae Sørensen & Finn Hynne

Authors
  1. Sune Danø
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  2. Preben Graae Sørensen
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  3. Finn Hynne
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Correspondence to Sune Danø.

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Danø, S., Sørensen, P. & Hynne, F. Sustained oscillations in living cells. Nature 402, 320–322 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/46329

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