Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 111, Issue 12, Pages 4397-4402Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1322005111
Keywords
pattern formation; nonlinear dynamics; chemical oscillations; chemical dynamics
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers [DMR-0820492, CHE-1012428]
- Division Of Chemistry
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1012428] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Alan Turing, in The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis [Turing AM (1952) Philos Trans R Soc Lond 237(641): 37-72], described how, in circular arrays of identical biological cells, diffusion can interact with chemical reactions to generate up to six periodic spatiotemporal chemical structures. Turing proposed that one of these structures, a stationary pattern with a chemically determined wavelength, is responsible for differentiation. We quantitatively test Turing's ideas in a cellular chemical system consisting of an emulsion of aqueous droplets containing the Belousov-Zhabotinsky oscillatory chemical reactants, dispersed in oil, and demonstrate that reaction-diffusion processes lead to chemical differentiation, which drives physical morphogenesis in chemical cells. We observe five of the six structures predicted by Turing. In 2D hexagonal arrays, a seventh structure emerges, incompatible with Turing's original model, which we explain by modifying the theory to include heterogeneity.
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