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How to fit in: the learning principles of cell differentiation

How to fit in: the learning principles of cell differentiation
How to fit in: the learning principles of cell differentiation
Cell differentiation in multicellular organisms requires cells to respond to complex combinations of extracellular cues, such as morphogen concentrations. Some models of phenotypic plasticity conceptualise the response as a relatively simple function of a single environmental cues (e.g. a linear function of one cue), which facilitates rigorous analysis. Conversely, more mechanistic models such those implementing GRNs allows for a more general class of response functions but makes analysis more difficult. Therefore, a general theory describing how cells integrate multi-dimensional signals is lacking. In this work, we propose a theoretical framework for understanding the relationships between environmental cues (inputs) and phenotypic responses (outputs) underlying cell plasticity. We describe the relationship between environment and cell phenotype using logical functions, making the evolution of cell plasticity equivalent to a simple categorisation learning task. This abstraction allows us to apply principles derived from learning theory to understand the evolution of multi-dimensional plasticity. Our results show that natural selection is capable of discovering adaptive forms of cell plasticity associated with complex logical functions. However, developmental dynamics cause simpler functions to evolve more readily than complex ones. By using conceptual tools derived from learning theory we show that this developmental bias can be interpreted as a learning bias in the acquisition of plasticity functions. Because of that bias, the evolution of plasticity enables cells, under some circumstances, to display appropriate plastic responses to environmental conditions that they have not experienced in their evolutionary past. This is possible when the selective environment mirrors the bias of the developmental dynamics favouring the acquisition of simple plasticity functions–an example of the necessary conditions for generalisation in learning systems. These results illustrate the functional parallelisms between learning in neural networks and the action of natural selection on environmentally sensitive gene regulatory networks. This offers a theoretical framework for the evolution of plastic responses that integrate information from multiple cues, a phenomenon that underpins the evolution of multicellularity and developmental robustness.
1553-734X
Brun Usan, Miguel A.
5d7fffc6-3cae-4c6d-92a5-0897a737b410
Thies, Christoph
Watson, Richard
ce199dfc-d5d4-4edf-bd7b-f9e224c96c75
Brun Usan, Miguel A.
5d7fffc6-3cae-4c6d-92a5-0897a737b410
Thies, Christoph
Watson, Richard
ce199dfc-d5d4-4edf-bd7b-f9e224c96c75

Brun Usan, Miguel A., Thies, Christoph and Watson, Richard (2020) How to fit in: the learning principles of cell differentiation. PLoS Computational Biology, 16 (4), [e1006811]. (doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006811).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Cell differentiation in multicellular organisms requires cells to respond to complex combinations of extracellular cues, such as morphogen concentrations. Some models of phenotypic plasticity conceptualise the response as a relatively simple function of a single environmental cues (e.g. a linear function of one cue), which facilitates rigorous analysis. Conversely, more mechanistic models such those implementing GRNs allows for a more general class of response functions but makes analysis more difficult. Therefore, a general theory describing how cells integrate multi-dimensional signals is lacking. In this work, we propose a theoretical framework for understanding the relationships between environmental cues (inputs) and phenotypic responses (outputs) underlying cell plasticity. We describe the relationship between environment and cell phenotype using logical functions, making the evolution of cell plasticity equivalent to a simple categorisation learning task. This abstraction allows us to apply principles derived from learning theory to understand the evolution of multi-dimensional plasticity. Our results show that natural selection is capable of discovering adaptive forms of cell plasticity associated with complex logical functions. However, developmental dynamics cause simpler functions to evolve more readily than complex ones. By using conceptual tools derived from learning theory we show that this developmental bias can be interpreted as a learning bias in the acquisition of plasticity functions. Because of that bias, the evolution of plasticity enables cells, under some circumstances, to display appropriate plastic responses to environmental conditions that they have not experienced in their evolutionary past. This is possible when the selective environment mirrors the bias of the developmental dynamics favouring the acquisition of simple plasticity functions–an example of the necessary conditions for generalisation in learning systems. These results illustrate the functional parallelisms between learning in neural networks and the action of natural selection on environmentally sensitive gene regulatory networks. This offers a theoretical framework for the evolution of plastic responses that integrate information from multiple cues, a phenomenon that underpins the evolution of multicellularity and developmental robustness.

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Accepted/In Press date: 20 February 2020
Published date: 13 April 2020

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 441830
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/441830
ISSN: 1553-734X
PURE UUID: 301fef25-dedf-47b6-8049-e12965942ac7
ORCID for Richard Watson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2521-8255

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Date deposited: 29 Jun 2020 16:33
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:00

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Contributors

Author: Miguel A. Brun Usan
Author: Christoph Thies
Author: Richard Watson ORCID iD

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