Trans-membrane Signal Transduction and Biochemical Turing Pattern Formation

The Turing mechanism for the production of a broken spatial symmetry in an initially homogeneous system of reacting and di using substances has attracted much interest as a potential model for certain aspects of morphogenesis such as pre-patterning in the embryo, and has also served as a model for self-organization in more generic systems. The two features necessary for the formation of Turing patterns are short-range autocatalysis and long-range inhibition which usually only occur when the di usion rate of the inhibitor is signi cantly greater than that of the activator. This observation has sometimes been used