Transition from thermokinetic to chemical instabilities in a modified sal'nikov model

Abstract

Traditionally, thermokinetic and chemical oscillations have been studied independently, but in cellular media recent studies have shown that cell's temperature is not uniform. Thus, on this context it is possible to inquire about the influence of thermal effects on chemical oscillatory behavior and vice versa. To this end, in this paper we propose a dynamical model based on a modified Sal'nikov oscillator that can address both kinds of oscillatory behavior (thermokinetic and chemical). We found that the system modeled can jump from thermal oscillations to mixed chemical-thermal oscillations through a transition or bifurcation parameter. Thermokinetic oscillations are well defined in a limit cycle, while chemical-thermal oscillations appear in the form of a burst. The model could be useful in explaining biochemical energy recovery under cellular stress conditions.