Formation and Persistence of Spatiotemporal Turing Patterns

Abstract

This article is concerned with the stability and long-time dynamics of structures arising from a structureless state. The paradigm is suggested by developmental biology, where morphogenesis is thought to result from a competition between chemical reactions and spatial diffusion. A system of two reaction-diffusion equations for the concentrations of two morphogens is reduced to a finite system of ordinary differential equations. The stability of bifurcated solutions of this system is analyzed, and the long-time asymptotic behavior of the bifurcated solutions is established rigorously. The Schnakenberg and Gierer-Meinhardt equations are discussed as examples.