Self-Organization in Cells II: Reaction-Diffusion Models

Abstract

In the previous chapter, we focused on the role of active processes such as polymerization on the self-organization of cytoskeletal structures. We now turn to another major mechanism for self-organization within cells (and between cells), namely, the interplay between diffusion (Chap. 2) and nonlinear chemical reactions (Chap. 6). Historically speaking, the idea that a reaction–diffusion system can spontaneously generate spatiotemporal patterns was first introduced by Turing in his seminal 1952 paper [646]. Turing considered the general problem of how organisms develop their structures during the growth from embryos to adults. He established the principle that two nonlinearly interacting chemical species differing significantly in their rates of diffusion can amplify spatially periodic fluctuations in their concentrations, resulting in the formation of a stable periodic pattern.