Synchronisation of stochastic oscillators in biochemical systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a formalism using the complex coherence function within the linear noise approximation to quantify and analyze the synchronization of stochastic oscillations in biochemical systems, including social amoeba models.

Contribution

It develops a novel analytical method to measure synchronization in stochastic biochemical oscillators and applies it to biological systems, demonstrating good agreement with simulations.

Findings

Synchronization depends on rate constants and cell volume.

Analytical results match numerical simulations.

Phase lag can be accurately calculated.

Abstract

A formalism is developed which describes the extent to which stochastic oscillations in biochemical models are synchronised. It is based on the calculation of the complex coherence function within the linear noise approximation. The method is illustrated on a simple example and then applied to study the synchronisation of chemical concentrations in social amoeba. The degree to which variation of rate constants in different cells and the volume of the cells affects synchronisation of the oscillations is explored, and the phase lag calculated. In all cases the analytical results are shown to be in good agreement with those obtained through numerical simulations.