Figure 5.

Intracellular positive feedback promotes synchronization between reciprocally coupled consortia. (a and b) The mapping from Δϕ to Δϕ_new for the P₂N₁ (a) and P₁N₁ (b) architectures. In both cases the map has two stable fixed points: Δϕ=0 (synchrony) and Δϕ=0.5 (anti-phase). For initial phase differences (Δϕ) that satisfy |Δϕ_new |<|Δϕ| (the blue region), this map predicts eventual synchrony. On the other hand, for initial phase differences that do not satisfy this inequality (outside the blue region), the map predicts anti-phase oscillations. (c-h) We simulated a spatially extended consortium in an extended trap with different initial phase differences between the two consortium halves. We show results for the three initial values corresponding to the red points in panels (a) and (b). The behavior of the extended population agrees with predictions from the analysis of two coupled localized populations (a, b).