Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 15: Reaction Diffusion Systems
DY 15.3: Talk
Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 10:30–10:45, H46
Inward Rotating Spiral Waves in Glycolysis — •Ronny Straube1, Ernesto M. Nicola2, and Thomas Mair3 — 1Systems Biology Group, Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, D-39106 Magdeburg — 2Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, D-01187 Dresden, Germany — 3Biophysics Group, Institute of Experimental Physics, Otto-von-Guericke University, Universitätsplatz 2, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
The mechanisms for spiral wave formation in reaction-diffusion systems are well known. Much less is known about the conditions under which inward propagating waves can be observed. After their discovery in chemical model systems [1,2] anti-waves have now been generated as waves of glycolytic activity in an extract of yeast cells (under review), which represents a biochemical model system for the energy metabolism. We show that in such allosteric enzyme systems inward propagating waves can only emerge if the number of enzyme subunits is sufficiently large – in agreement with the octameric structure of yeast phosphofructokinase. In addition, we provide evidence that the formation of these anti-waves is favoured if the enzyme activation step exhibits negative cooperativity.
[1] V. K. Vanag, I. R. Epstein. Science 294, 835-837 (2001).
[2] X. Shao et.al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 198304 (2008).