Promotion and inhibition of synchronous glycolytic oscillations in yeast by chitosan

Synchronous rhythmic activities play crucial roles in diverse biological systems. Glycolytic oscillations in yeast cells have been studied for 50 years with the aim of elucidating the mechanisms underlying the intracellular oscillations and their synchronization. We investigated the effects of chemical disturbances on the individual and collective glycolytic oscillations in yeast cells encapsulated in alginate microparticles, and demonstrated that the addition of chitosan, an antimicrobial agent, decreased the duration of these oscillations. In contrast, the periods and the synchronicity states showed two different responses to the chitosan treatments. The periods were shown to be prolonged following the treatment with 5–50 mg·L−1 and shortened at 75 mg·L−1 of chitosan. Collective oscillations became more synchronized at 5 mg·L−1 of chitosan, and desynchronized at 25–75 mg·L−1 of this compound. These findings can be explained by the balance between two chitosan features, increasing cell membrane permeability and acetaldehyde scavenging. At low concentrations, chitosan presumably acts as a synchronization promoter that does not mediate the synchronization itself but induces an increase in intercellular coupling. We believe that our findings may provide new insights into the synchronous rhythmic activities in biological systems.