Multiple steady states as a source of pattern formation in complex multicell chemical systems

✍ Scribed by Marcelo Kork; Martin Feinberg

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 896 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(93)80260-w

✦ Synopsis

An assemblage of identical chemical cells weakly coupled by passive intercellular transport is considered. When the chemistry in the individual cells give multiple steady states, it is apparent that, in the absence of intercellular coupling, the assemblage can exhibit nonuniform steady states (even very complex ones) in which there are cell-to-cell differences in composition. However, in the presence of even very weak intercellular transport, these composition patterns may or may not persist. Results are presented that indicate how the persistence of patterns is determined by the interplay of chemistry and intercellular transport.