System-size resonance for intracellular and intercellular calcium signaling Original Research Article

Dynamical behaviors of unidirectionally, linearly coupled as well as isolated calcium subsystems are investigated by taking into account the internal noise resulting from finite system size and thus small numbers of interacting molecules. For an isolated calcium system, the internal noise can induce stochastic oscillations for a steady state close to the Hopf-bifurcation point, and the regularity of those stochastic oscillations depends resonantly on the system size, exhibiting system-size resonance. For the coupled system consisting of two subsystems, the system-size resonance effect observed in the subsystem subject to coupling is significantly amplified due to the nontrivial effects of coupling.