SIMPLE-MODEL OF DYNAMIC RECEPTOR PATTERN GENERATION

A dynamic pattern generating automaton has been constructed. The rules controlling its function furnish the non-random generation of sub-patterns in consecutive cycles, within a large plane area, covered by four different classes of units of constant mean frequency in each class (standard system). The stabilization of certain specific sub-patterns over 100 subsequent cycles of pattern generation (modified systems) resulted in the modification of the frequency and frequency distribution of the sub-patterns relative to the standard system. Some new types of sub-patterns, not encountered in the standard system, also made appearance in the modified systems. The functioning of the standard and modified systems was analyzed and compared by the methods of mathematical statistics. The automaton was used to model certain features of the cytoplasmic membrane. The latter was regarded as a device by which the cell collects information about its environment. The dynamic generation of sub-patterns was taken as the cell's manner of asking questions, and the complementary chemical structures present in the environment were treated as possible answers to these. The irreversible question-answer interactions were regarded as signals and were modelled by the stabilization of specific sub-patterns. It was found that in a dynamic system like the model presented, it is not necessary to code each possible sub-pattern individually. Precise coding of the relative frequency of units per class and of their possible interactions is sufficient to furnish statistically constant mean frequencies for a given range of sub-patterns. In a dynamic system, the actual range of sub-patterns arisen in a population of identical individuals depends only on the size of the population. If the latter is appropriately large, all possible sub-patterns may be simultaneously present at any time at the average frequencies characteristic of each. Stabilized sub-patterns (signals) seem to modify specifically the frequencies of the other sub-patterns generated by the normal automaton. Some sub-patterns may disappear permanently, while others (new ones) may turn up and persist at given frequencies. Missense signals may definitively put the automaton out of order, i.e. result in the cell's complete misorientation in respect of its relations to the normal tissue structure. © 1979 Springer-Verlag.