Network effects lead to self-organization in metabolic cycles of self-repelling catalysts

Vincent Ouazan-Reboul; Ramin Golestanian; Jaime Agudo-Canalejo

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.131.128301

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arXiv · 2304.09925

Network effects lead to self-organization in metabolic cycles of self-repelling catalysts

Vincent Ouazan-Reboul·Ramin Golestanian·Jaime Agudo-Canalejo

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Abstract

Mixtures of particles that interact through phoretic effects are known to aggregate if they belong to species that exhibit attractive self-interactions. We study self-organization in a model metabolic cycle composed of three species of catalytically-active particles that are chemotactic towards the chemicals that define their connectivity network. We find that the self-organization can be controlled by the network properties, as exemplified by a case where a collapse instability is achieved by design for self-repelling species. Our findings highlight a possibility for controlling the intricate functions of metabolic networks by taking advantage of the physics of phoretic active matter.

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Vincent Ouazan-Reboul, Ramin Golestanian, Jaime Agudo-Canalejo. 2023-04-19. Network effects lead to self-organization in metabolic cycles of self-repelling catalysts. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.131.128301

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