Competition of energy between active transport and vesicle fusion at the origin of intracellular gradient fields

It has been reported that the ionic patterns of hyphal growth can be explained by a weakening of the active transport at the tip at the expense of other biosynthesis processes, from which results energy transport from the proximal cells to the apical ones (Potapova et al. 1988). We present here a theory to support this hypothesis, whose extent is much more general than the initial frame where it has been formulated. It can be summarized in two basics mechanisms, one coupling active transport of the plasma membrane, electric potential and vesicle fusion, the other coupling the Ca2+-ATPase of the endoplasmic reticulum and vesicle fusion. For some values of parameters introduced in the theory, the uniform state of the cell becomes unstable, at the origin of intracellular gradient fields. Theoretical ionic patterns are spontaneously produced, which can be satisfactorily compared to several observed in and around tip-growing cells.