  Regulation of zinc uptake in roots of Arabidopsis thaliana has recently been
modeled by a system of ordinary differential equations based on the uptake of
zinc, expression of a transporter protein and the interaction between an
activator and inhibitor. For certain parameter choices the steady state of this
model becomes unstable upon variation in the external zinc concentration.
Numerical results show periodic orbits emerging between two critical values of
the external zinc concentration. Here we show the existence of a global Hopf
bifurcation with a continuous family of stable periodic orbits between two Hopf
bifurcation points. The stability of the orbits in a neighborhood of the
bifurcation points is analyzed by deriving the normal form, while the stability
of the orbits in the global continuation is shown by calculation of the Floquet
multipliers. From a biological point of view, stable periodic orbits lead to
potentially toxic zinc peaks in plant cells. Buffering is believed to be an
efficient way to deal with strong transient variations in zinc supply. We
extend the model by a buffer reaction and analyze the stability of the steady
state in dependence of the properties of this reaction. We find that a large
enough equilibrium constant of the buffering reaction stabilizes the steady
state and prevents the development of oscillations. Hence, our results suggest
that buffering has a key role in the dynamics of zinc homeostasis in plant
cells.
