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Theory of cell fate

Theory of cell fate
Theory of cell fate
Cell fate decisions are controlled by complex intracellular molecular regulatory networks. Studies increasingly reveal the scale of this complexity: not only do cell fate regulatory networks contain numerous positive and negative feedback loops, they also involve a range of different kinds of nonlinear protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions. This inherent complexity and non-linearity makes cell fate decisions hard to understand using experiment and intuition alone. In this primer we will outline how tools from mathematics can be used to understand cell fate dynamics. We will briefly introduce some notions from dynamical systems theory, and discuss how they offer a framework within which to build a rigorous understanding of what we mean by a cell 'fate', and how cells change fate. We will also outline how modern experiments, particularly high-throughput single-cell experiments, are enabling us to test and explore the limits of these ideas, and build a better understanding of cellular identities.
Casey, Michael, John
3f316614-e401-4955-b400-0815e03af431
Stumpf, Patrick
dfdb286c-b321-46d3-8ba2-85b3b4a7f092
MacArthur, Ben D.
2c0476e7-5d3e-4064-81bb-104e8e88bb6b
Casey, Michael, John
3f316614-e401-4955-b400-0815e03af431
Stumpf, Patrick
dfdb286c-b321-46d3-8ba2-85b3b4a7f092
MacArthur, Ben D.
2c0476e7-5d3e-4064-81bb-104e8e88bb6b

Casey, Michael, John, Stumpf, Patrick and MacArthur, Ben D. (2019) Theory of cell fate. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Systems Biology and Medicine. (doi:10.1002/wsbm.1471).

Record type: Review

Abstract

Cell fate decisions are controlled by complex intracellular molecular regulatory networks. Studies increasingly reveal the scale of this complexity: not only do cell fate regulatory networks contain numerous positive and negative feedback loops, they also involve a range of different kinds of nonlinear protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions. This inherent complexity and non-linearity makes cell fate decisions hard to understand using experiment and intuition alone. In this primer we will outline how tools from mathematics can be used to understand cell fate dynamics. We will briefly introduce some notions from dynamical systems theory, and discuss how they offer a framework within which to build a rigorous understanding of what we mean by a cell 'fate', and how cells change fate. We will also outline how modern experiments, particularly high-throughput single-cell experiments, are enabling us to test and explore the limits of these ideas, and build a better understanding of cellular identities.

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Theory_of_Cell_Fate - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 6 November 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 12 December 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 436407
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/436407
PURE UUID: 9343a288-dffd-4278-9b4b-ebc0b843e03b
ORCID for Patrick Stumpf: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0862-0290
ORCID for Ben D. MacArthur: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5396-9750

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 10 Dec 2019 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:07

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Contributors

Author: Michael, John Casey
Author: Patrick Stumpf ORCID iD

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