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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.09548 |
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Table of 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.