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Biochemical oscillations and cellular rhythms. The molecular bases of periodic and chaotic behaviour. Transl. from the French. (English) Zbl 0837.92009
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. xxiv, 605 p. (1996).
The book is devoted to the study of molecular bases of simple and complex patterns of temporal organization in biochemical and cellular systems. The approach followed relies on the analysis of models whose temporal behavior is governed by a set of chemical kinetic equations (often in the form of nonlinear, ordinary differential equations). The book is analyzing precise molecular models based on experimental observations for some of the best-known examples of biochemical rhythms. Among these examples are glycolytic oscillations in yeast and muscle, and oscillations of cAMP in the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum. Besides pacemaker behavior in nerve and cardiac cells, these oscillations are among the biological rhythms whose mechanisms have been identified thoroughly at the molecular level.
Subsequent chapters of the book are devoted to the modelling of two other oscillatory phenomena recently characterized at the cellular level. One pertains to the occurrence of intracellular $$\text{Ca}^{2+}$$ oscillations in a variety of cells stimulated by an external signal such as a hormone or neurotransmitter, the other to the relatively simple biochemical oscillator driving the cell division cycle in amphibian embryos. Finally, a chapter is devoted to the analysis of a model for circadian oscillations of the period protein in Drosophila; the model is based on recent experimental advances made in characterizing the biochemical nature of the circadian clock in that organism.
The proposed study of biochemical oscillations is thus extended in various directions, from simple and complex periodic behavior to chaotic dynamics, and from cellular rhythms to chronopharmacology. It is the purpose of the present book to explore the molecular bases of these oscillatory phenomena and the richness of their physiological implications.
Reviewer: S.Curteanu (Iaşi)

##### MSC:
 92C40 Biochemistry, molecular biology 92-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to biology 92Cxx Physiological, cellular and medical topics 93C10 Nonlinear systems in control theory 93C15 Control/observation systems governed by ordinary differential equations