title: Observation of a chaotic multioscillatory metabolic attractor by real-time monitoring of a yeast continuous culture.
abstract: We monitored a continuous culture of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by membrane-inlet mass spectrometry. This technique allows very rapid simultaneous measurements (one point every 12 s) of several dissolved gases. During our experiment, the culture exhibited a multioscillatory mode in which the dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide records displayed periodicities of 13 h, 36 min and 4 min. The 36- and 4-min modes were not visible at all times, but returned at regular intervals during the 13-h cycle. The 4-min mode, which has not previously been described in continuous culture, can also be seen when the culture displays simpler oscillatory behavior. The data can be used to visualize a metabolic attractor of this system, i.e. the set of dissolved gas concentrations which are consistent with the multioscillatory state. Computation of the leading Lyapunov exponent reveals the dynamics on this attractor to be chaotic.
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Group, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, UK. roussel@uleth.ca
authors.forename: Marc R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Roussel
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lloyd
mesh_terms: D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D003470:Culture Media / Q000378:metabolism; D005285:Fermentation / Q000502:physiology*; D007700:Kinetics; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D009991:Oscillometry; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism; D010507:Periodicity; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D010100:Oxygen