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Published on: August 1, 2011
Hierarchical organization of noise generates spontaneous signal in Paramecium cell
Shunsuke Ooyama1, Tatsuo Shibata
1Department of Mathematical and Life Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan.
Abstract:
In many cellular processes, spontaneous activities are often the basis for their functioning. Paramecium cells change their swimming direction under a homogeneous environment, which is induced by a spontaneous signal generation in the membrane electric potential. For such a spontaneous activity, a theoretical model has been proposed by Oosawa (2007) [Biosystems 88, 191-201.], in which intracellular noise is hierarchically organized from thermal fluctuations to spike-like large fluctuations, which induces a signal to change spontaneously the swimming direction. Our analysis of the model shows that the system is a kind of excitable media, in which a spike is induced by a stochastic fluctuation. We show conditions of channels properties to have a spike train.
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