Important concepts from colloidal physical chemistry such as coacervation, phase transitions, emergent properties and ionic association, are currently emerging in the lexicon of cellular biology, prompted mostly by recent experimental observations of liquid phase coexistence in the cell cytosol. Nevertheless, from an historical point of view, the application of these concepts in cell biology is not new. They were key concepts into the so-called protoplasmic doctrine, an alternative (and largely forgotten) approach to cell physiology. The most complete theory originating from this line of thinking was the Association-Induction Hypothesis (AIH), introduced by Gilbert N. Ling in 1962. The AIH, which envisions living cells as complex dynamical colloidal systems, provides ample theory and experimental evidence to call into question the now dominant view of living cells as fluid-filled vesicles. This review attempts to present and discuss the usefulness of the AIH to understand a series of experimental observations from our laboratory from living suspensions of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae exhibiting glycolytic oscillations. Particularly, the AIH helped us integrate, in a mechanistic sense, the basis of a strong temporal coupling observed between ATP and a series of cellular properties such as intracellular water dipolar relaxation, intracellular K⁺ concentration, among many others, where the colloidal physical chemistry of the cell interior plays a fundamental role.

胶体物理化学的重要概念，如凝聚、相变、突现性质和离子缔合，目前正在细胞生物学词典中出现，主要是由最近对细胞胞质中液相共存的实验观察引起的。尽管如此，从历史的角度来看，这些概念在细胞生物学中的应用并不新鲜。它们是所谓的原生质学说的关键概念，这是细胞生理学的一种替代方法（并且在很大程度上被遗忘）。源于这一思路的最完整的理论是由 Gilbert N. Ling 于 1962 年提出的关联诱导假设（AIH）。 AIH 将活细胞设想为复杂的动态胶体系统，提供了充足的理论和实验证据来质疑现在将活细胞视为充满液体的囊泡的主流观点。这篇综述试图展示和讨论 AIH 的有用性，以了解我们实验室从酵母的活悬浮液中进行的一系列实验观察酿酒酵母表现出糖酵解振荡。特别是，AIH 帮助我们在机械意义上整合了在 ATP 与一系列细胞特性（例如细胞内水偶极弛豫、细胞内 K ⁺浓度等）之间观察到的强时间耦合的基础，其中胶体物理化学细胞内部的结构起着根本性的作用。