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Mechanical properties of eukaryotic cells play an important role in life cycle conditions and in the development of pathological processes. In this paper we discuss the problem of parameters identification and verification of viscoelastic constitutive models based on force spectroscopy data of living cells. It is proposed to use one-dimensional continuous wavelet transform to calculate the relaxation function. Analytical calculations and the results of numerical simulation are given, which allow to obtain relaxation functions similar to each other on the basis of experimentally determined force curves and theoretical stress-strain relationships using wavelet differentiation algorithms. Test examples demonstrating correctness of software implementation of the proposed algorithms are analyzed. The cell models are considered, on the example of which the application of the proposed procedure of identification and verification of their parameters is demonstrated. Among them are a structural-mechanical model with parallel connected fractional elements, which is currently the most adequate in terms of compliance with atomic force microscopy data of a wide class of cells, and a new statistical-thermodynamic model, which is not inferior in descriptive capabilities to models with fractional derivatives, but has a clearer physical meaning. For the statistical-thermodynamic model, the procedure of its construction is described in detail, which includes the following. Introduction of a structural variable, the order parameter, to describe the orientation properties of the cell cytoskeleton. Setting and solving the statistical problem for the ensemble of actin filaments of a representative cell volume with respect to this variable. Establishment of the type of free energy depending on the order parameter, temperature and external load. It is also proposed to use an oriented-viscous-elastic body as a model of a representative element of the cell. Following the theory of linear thermodynamics, evolutionary equations describing the mechanical behavior of the representative volume of the cell are obtained, which satisfy the basic thermodynamic laws. The problem of optimizing the parameters of the statisticalthermodynamic model of the cell, which can be compared both with experimental data and with the results of simulations based on other mathematical models, is also posed and solved. The viscoelastic characteristics of cells are determined on the basis of comparison with literature data.

Photosynthetic apparatus of a plant cell consists of multiple photosynthetic electron transport chains (ETC). Each ETC is capable of capturing and utilizing light quanta, that drive electron transport along the chain. Light assimilation efficiency depends on the plant’s current physiological state. The energy of the part of quanta that cannot be utilized, dissipates into heat, or is emitted as fluorescence. Under high light conditions fluorescence levels gradually rise to the maximum level. The curve describing that rise is called fluorescence rise (FR). It has a complex shape and that shape changes depending on the photosynthetic apparatus state. This gives one the opportunity to investigate that state only using the non invasive measuring of the FR.

When measuring fluorescence in experimental conditions, we get a response from millions of photosynthetic units at a time. In order to reproduce the probabilistic nature of the processes in a photosynthetic ETC, we created a Monte Carlo model of this chain. This model describes an ETC as a sequence of electron carriers in a thylakoid membrane, connected with each other. Those carriers have certain probabilities of capturing light photons, transferring excited states, or reducing each other, depending on the current ETC state. The events that take place in each of the model photosynthetic ETCs are registered, accumulated and used to create fluorescence rise and electron carrier redox states accumulation kinetics. This paper describes the model structure, the principles of its operation and the relations between certain model parameters and the resulting kinetic curves shape. Model curves include photosystem II reaction center fluorescence rise and photosystem I reaction center redox state change kinetics under different conditions.

The approach for the analysis of some large-scale biological systems, on the base of quasiequilibrium stages is proposed. The approach allows us to reduce the detailed large-scaled models and obtain the simplified model with an analytical solution. This makes it possible to reproduce the experimental curves with a good accuracy. This approach has been applied to a detailed model of the primary processes of photosynthesis in the reaction center of photosystem II. The resulting simplified model of photosystem II describes the experimental fluorescence induction curves for higher and lower plants, obtained under different light intensities. Derived relationships between variables and parameters of detailed and simplified models, allow us to use parameters of simplified model to describe the dynamics of various states of photosystem II detailed model.