Abstract 2015 Dissecting the Nonlinear Circuit Structure of Phosphoinositide Signaling Networks

Understanding how a small number of phosphoinositide lipids broadly impact membrane dynamics, signal transduction, and cellular physiology remains an open question. Our recent studies in antigen-stimulated mast cells, a secretory cell type in the innate and adaptive immune system, have uncovered diverse dynamical phenomena in phosphoinositide signaling, including excitability, oscillations, periodic traveling waves, and mixed-mode oscillations-a precursor to chaotic behavior. These emergent properties stem from the nonlinear organization of phosphoinositide metabolism, emphasizing how small changes in kinetic parameters can drive rapid cellular transitions between distinct states.