Cooperative dynamics coordinated by stochastic noise in a multi-cell system

We investigate a general coupled noisy system with time delays for cooperative behavior in a multi-cell system. The main conclusion is that appropriate noise intensity and coupling are capable of driving the coupled system to synchrony or resonance, which may be exploited by biological organisms actively to facilitate mutual communication. A multi-cell system with a synthetic gene network, which consists of both intracellular and extracellular noise and time delays, is adopted to demonstrate the effect of noise and coupling on collective dynamics.