Experimental evidence for multistability in a photobiochemical system

Spatial patterns in a photobiochemical system

Illumination of a system consisting of a vertical tube containing an unstirred homogeneous suspension of thylakoids in an imposed linear concentration gradient of an electron acceptor, 2,6-dichloroindophenol, gave rise to a one-dimensional banded pattern of the acceptor that evolved in a time-dependent manner. The spatial pattern was obtained only within certain parameters of the dichloroindophenol gradient and with certain concentrations of thylakoids. Various numbers of bands were obtained by varying the gradient parameters, the thylakoid concentration, or both. Pattern formation was reaction-dependent since inhibition of the water-splitting system, either by a physical (heating) or by a chemical (methylamine) method, resulted in abolition of the spatial periodicity. Obtaining the self-organized redox transition of dichloroindophenol in a gelled medium suggests that pattern formation in this system could be explained mainly by a reaction-diffusion mechanism.

Dissipative structures in a two-cell system: Numerical and experimental approaches

It has been shown that the coupling between the photoreduction of the oxidized form of dichloroindophenol (an artificial electron acceptor) by thylakoids and the incident light intensity can lead to the appearance of multiple steady states when the system is operated under open conditions. In the present work, a numerical study and experimental evidence are presented on the occurrence of dissipative structures in an arrangement of two continuously stirred tank reactors with mutual mass exchange of dichloroindophenol through an inert membrane. The stable spatial structures are generated by the creation of transient internal and external asymmetries. A nontrivial hysteresis effect between symmetric and asymmetric stable steady states has been observed.

Pattern formation in an immobilized bienzyme system. A morphogenetic model

Experimental and theoretical studies of a reaction-diffusion model of two immobilized enzymes participating in the cellular acid-base metabolism, namely glutaminase and urease, are presented. The system shows an unstable steady state at pH 6.0, where any perturbation will drive the system towards a more alkaline or more acidic pH, owing to the autocatalytic behaviour with respect to pH exhibited by both enzymes. When diffusion is coupled to reaction by means of immobilization, different patterns of the internal pH profile appear across the membrane. If the bienzymic membrane is subjected to a perturbation at its boundaries, of the same amplitude but in opposite directions, the internal pH evolves through an asymmetric pattern to attain a nearly symmetric distribution of pH. The pH value at the final steady state is more acidic or more alkaline than the initial state according to the initial and boundary conditions. The final nearly symmetric state is attained more rapidly when less enzyme is immobilized (1.8 x 10(-4) M.s-1 as against 3.3 x 10(-4) M.s-1 of total enzyme activity in the membrane volume). The experimental results agree rather well qualitatively with numerical predictions of the model equations.