For many years it has been known that developing cells of Dictyostelium discoideum show periodic surges as they aggregate. When it was discovered that the cells were responding chemotactically to cAMP gradients produced within the populations, experiments were carried out that demonstrated...

Oscillations in chemical reactions and metabolic pathways have historically served as prototypes for understanding the dynamics of complex nonlinear systems. This chapter reviews the oscillatory behavior of mitochondria, with a focus on the mitochondrial oscillator dependent on reactive oxygen...

Respiratory oscillations in yeasts have been studied in three time domains with periods of (a) about a minute, (b) about 40 min, and (c) about a day. Reactive responses (damped oscillations), rhythms and temperature-compensated clocks have been described for (b) and (c), but a timekeeping clock...

From general considerations of the basic physiological properties of the cell division cycle, we deduce what the dynamical properties of the underlying molecular control system must be. Then, taking a few hints from the biochemistry of cyclin-dependent kinases (the master regulators of the...

Oscillation of the Min proteins is a key regulator of the division plane in many bacteria including the model organism E. coli. The coupled oscillation of these proteins between the ends of the cell restricts the formation of the Z ring, an essential cytoskeletal element that serves as a scaffold...

The p53 network is perhaps the most important pathway involved in preventing the 
 initiation of cancer. p53 levels and activity are upregulated in response to various stresses 
 including DNA damage, hypoxia, and oncogene activation. Active p53 initiates different transcriptional...

Periodic environments like we experience on the surface of planet earth lead living organisms to evolve molecular anticipation devices known a circadian clocks. The word circadian refers to the period of these oscillations which last about (circa) one day (dies). A frequently felt manifestation...

Changes in cellular Ca2+ concentration control a wide range of physiological processes, 
from the subsecond release of synaptic neurotransmitters, to the regulation of gene expression over months or years. Ca2+ can also trigger cell death through both apoptosis and necrosis, and so the...

Oscillatory expression of the Hes family of transcription factors plays a central role in the segmentation of the vertebrate body during embryonic development. Analogous oscillations in cultured cells suggest that Hes oscillations may be important in other developmental processes, and provide an...

Temporal control is considered the fourth dimension in embryonic development and it sets the pace to attain the correct molecular patterning of the developing embryo. In this chapter we review one of the best-studied time dependent events in embryogenesis, which is the formation of somites....