Complex dynamics of mass-closed coupled autocatalytic systems in response to minute asymmetric perturbations

Abstract

The role of kinetic coupling in catering to a remote-control mechanism for the onset and regulation of self-organization phenomena in a multicompartmental biochemical system has been examined. Using two cyclic autocatalytic reaction networks operating in two chambers separated by a membrane and coupled through a common cofactor, it has been demonstrated that (i) in response to asymmetric perturbations, the coupled reaction networks exhibit a variety of temporal self-organization phenomena such as bistability, multiple periodicity, hard excitation and coexistence of aperiodic oscillation with limit cycle even in mass-closed conditions; (ii) without disturbing a network directly, its dynamic behaviour can be regulated by perturbing some other network kinetically coupled to it and (iii) the dynamics of two coupled networks can be made to flip-flop between oscillatory and steady-states simply by modulating the time of application of external perturbations. The extreme sensitivity of this model to minute asymmetric fluctuations in the environment can predict how the impact of local changes in physico-chemical conditions can be transmitted from one compartment to another through coupled biochemical pathways in a living cell.