Notes on entrainment

Principles, mechanisms and functions of entrainment in biological oscillators

• https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsfs.2021.0088

Alba Jiménez¹, Ying Lu¹, Ashwini Jambhekarss[ and Galit Lahav^1,2

1 Department of Systems Biology, Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA

2 Ludwig Center at Harvard, Boston, MA 02115, USA AJi, 0000-0002-9014-5857; YL, 0000-0003-3516-7735; AJa, 0000-0003-1078-6601;

GL, 0000-0003-4758-6427

Entrainment is a phenomenon in which two oscillators interact with each other, typically through physical or chemical means, to synchronize their oscillations. This phenomenon occurs in biology to coordinate processes from the molecular to organismal scale.
 
Biological oscillators can be entrained within a single cell, between cells or to an external input. 
 
Using six illustrative examples of entrainable biological oscillators, we discuss the distinctions between entrainment and synchrony and explore features that contribute to a system’s propensity to entrain. Entrainment can either enhance or reduce the heterogeneity of oscillations within a cell population, and we provide examples and mechanisms of each case.
 
Finally, we discuss the known functions of entrainment and discuss potential functions from an evolutionary perspective.