From: hess at foxy.mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de (Benno Hess)
Message-Id: <9409261125.AA01610 at foxy.mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de>
Subject: no subject (file transmission)
To: Biosci at dl.ac.uk (Bionetwork)
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 12:25:33 MET
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Status: R
To all who are interested;
Ber.Bunsenges.Phys.Che.98,1198-1201(1994)No.9
SELF-ORGANIZATION IN LIVING CELLS
B. Hess1 and A. Mikhailov2
1Max-Planck-Institut fur medizinische Forschung,
Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg
2Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft,
Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin (Dahlem)
Abstract
Theoretical estimates of characteristic mixing and traffic times of enzymic reactions are derived. They are used to analyze the
operation of molecular networks formed by enzymic reactions
inside living cells. Analogies between molecular chemical networks
and neural nets are discussed.
In this paper we discuss properties of self-organization
phenomena in the biochemical subsystem of living cells. We show
that although strong diffusional mixing prevents development of
spatial patterns at submicrometer scales typical for intracellular
processes, at the same time it opens up a possibility for a
different mode of self-organization based on direct correlations
between elementary reaction events. If this mode is employ
enzymic reactions form coherent molecular networks which
operate at the level of single molecules.
