Entropy, Ergodicity and Stem Cell Multipotency
Cell Behavior
2015-10-20 v3 Biological Physics
Abstract
Populations of mammalian stem cells commonly exhibit considerable cell-cell variability. However, the functional role of this diversity is unclear. Here, we analyze expression fluctuations of the stem cell surface marker Sca1 in mouse hematopoietic progenitor cells using a simple stochastic model and find that the observed dynamics naturally lie close to a critical state, thereby producing a diverse population that is able to respond rapidly to environmental changes. We propose an information-theoretic interpretation of these results that views cellular multipotency as an instance of maximum entropy statistical inference.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1504.07266,
title = {Entropy, Ergodicity and Stem Cell Multipotency},
author = {Sonya J. Ridden and Hannah H. Chang and Konstantinos C. Zygalakis and Ben D. MacArthur},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.07266},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
6 pages, 3 figures