Dynamic landscapes and statistical limits on growth during cell fate specification

Fuente: arXiv
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Autore principale: Reddy, Gautam
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Reddy, Gautam
author_facet Reddy, Gautam
contents The complexity of gene regulatory networks in multicellular organisms makes interpretable low-dimensional models highly desirable. An attractive geometric picture, attributed to Waddington, visualizes the differentiation of a cell into diverse functional types as gradient flow on a dynamic potential landscape. However, it is unclear under what biological constraints this metaphor is mathematically precise. Here, we show that growth-maximizing regulatory strategies that guide a single cell to a target distribution of cell types are described by time-dependent potential landscapes under certain generic growth-control tradeoffs. Our analysis leads to a sharp bound on the time it takes for a population to grow to a target distribution of a certain size. We show how the framework can be used to compute regulatory strategies and growth curves in an illustrative model of growth and differentiation. The theory suggests a conceptual link between nonequilibrium thermodynamics and cellular decision-making during development.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_09548
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dynamic landscapes and statistical limits on growth during cell fate specification
Reddy, Gautam
Biological Physics
Cell Behavior
Tissues and Organs
The complexity of gene regulatory networks in multicellular organisms makes interpretable low-dimensional models highly desirable. An attractive geometric picture, attributed to Waddington, visualizes the differentiation of a cell into diverse functional types as gradient flow on a dynamic potential landscape. However, it is unclear under what biological constraints this metaphor is mathematically precise. Here, we show that growth-maximizing regulatory strategies that guide a single cell to a target distribution of cell types are described by time-dependent potential landscapes under certain generic growth-control tradeoffs. Our analysis leads to a sharp bound on the time it takes for a population to grow to a target distribution of a certain size. We show how the framework can be used to compute regulatory strategies and growth curves in an illustrative model of growth and differentiation. The theory suggests a conceptual link between nonequilibrium thermodynamics and cellular decision-making during development.
title Dynamic landscapes and statistical limits on growth during cell fate specification
topic Biological Physics
Cell Behavior
Tissues and Organs
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.09548