Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 August 2014
In this paper, we introduce a notion of unistructural cluster algebras, for which the set of cluster variables uniquely determines the clusters, as well as the notion of weak unistructural cluster algebras, for which the set of cluster variables determines the clusters, provided that the type of the cluster algebra is fixed. We prove that, for cluster algebras of the Dynkin type, the two notions of unistructural and weakly unistructural coincide, and that cluster algebras of rank 2 are always unistructural. We then prove that a cluster algebra $\mathcal A$ is weakly unistructural if and only if any automorphism of the ambient field, which restricts to a permutation of cluster variables of $\mathcal A$, is a cluster automorphism. We also investigate the Fomin-Zelevinsky conjecture that two cluster variables are compatible if and only if one does not appear in the denominator of the Laurent expansions of the other.