Aperiodic (‘chaotic’) behaviour of plant cell wall extension—I nonlinear chemical model of periodic and aperiodic oscillations of cell wall growth

A model is presented that allows us to predict that the expansion rate of the plant cell wall may display periodic or aperiodic (‘chaotic’) oscillations. This model is based on the existence in the wall of antagonistic enzyme reactions that form an open bi-substrate cycle controlled by metal ions in a non-linear fashion. The numerical solutions of the corresponding equations are strongly dependent upon the local fixed charge density of the wall. Spatial organization of the fixed charges may thus generate aperiodic behaviour of the expansion rate.