Dynamic coupling and spatio–temporal coherence in cellular systems

Abstract

The basic idea of the concept of dynamic organization developed in Chapter 2 is that function, understood as the spatio–temporal coherence of events, results from the intrinsic dynamics of the processes taking place in living systems. This intrinsic dynamics may be either autonomous or forced by environmental (extra–or intracellular) perturbations. Dynamic organization results from the evolution of the spatio-temporal organization of biological processes between successive levels of organization. The temporal evolution of a biological process into successive dynamic regimes is achieved through instabilities (bifurcations) which give rise to the emergence of collective behaviour of, for example, supramolecular structures, enzyme activity, cells and spatio-temporal coherence.