Related papers: Universal relationship in gene-expression changes …
Molecular phenotypes are important links between genomic information and organismic functions, fitness, and evolution. Complex phenotypes, which are also called quantitative traits, often depend on multiple genomic loci. Their evolution…
Much recent work has explored molecular and population-genetic constraints on the rate of protein sequence evolution. The best predictor of evolutionary rate is expression level, for reasons which have remained unexplained. Here, we…
Most of the DNA that composes a complex organism is non-coding and defined as junk. Even the coding part is composed of genes that affect the phenotype differently. Therefore, a random mutation has an effect on the specimen fitness that…
Yeast cells grown in culture can spontaneously synchronize their respiration, metabolism, gene expression and cell division. Such metabolic oscillations in synchronized cultures reflect single-cell oscillations, but the relationship between…
Cell migration is closely linked to cell shape, yet cell size is often assumed to remain constant. This assumption is challenged by recent experiments showing that cells undergo volume loss during spreading and swelling upon activation,…
We study a simple model of DNA evolution in a growing population of cells. Each cell contains a nucleotide sequence which randomly mutates at cell division. Cells divide according to a branching process. Following typical parameter values…
Cells achieve size homeostasis by regulating their division timing based on their size, added size, and cell cycle time. Previous research under steady-state conditions demonstrated the robustness of these mechanisms. However, their dynamic…
In unicellular organisms such as bacteria the same acquired mutations beneficial in one environment can be restrictive in another. However, evolving Escherichia coli populations demonstrate remarkable flexibility in adaptation. The…
The advent of single-cell technology has significantly improved our understanding of cellular states and subpopulations in various tissues under normal and diseased conditions by employing data-driven approaches such as clustering and…
Numerous transcription factors self-assemble into different order oligomeric species in a way that is actively regulated by the cell. Until now, no general functional role has been identified for this widespread process. Here we capture the…
Cells are able to generate phenotypic diversity both during development and in response to stressful and changing environments, aiding survival. The biologically and medically vital process of a cell assuming a functionally important fate…
Network analysis provides a powerful framework for the interpretation of genome-wide data. While static network approaches have proved fruitful, there is increasing interest in the insights gained from the analysis of cellular networks…
Stochasticity in gene expression can result in fluctuations in gene product levels. Recent experiments indicated that feedback regulation plays an important role in controlling the noise in gene expression. A quantitative understanding of…
A first-principles theory is developed for the general evolution of a key structural characteristic of planar granular systems - the cell order distribution. The dynamic equations are constructed and solved in closed form for a number of…
We present significantly advanced studies of the previously introduced physical growth mechanism and unite it with biochemical growth factors. Obtained results allowed formulating the general growth law which governs growth and evolutional…
Understanding why we age is a long-lived open problem in evolutionary biology. Aging is prejudicial to the individual and evolutionary forces should prevent it, but many species show signs of senescence as individuals age. Here, I will…
Recent experiments at the level of a single cell have shown that gene expression occurs in abrupt stochastic bursts. Further, in an ensemble of cells, the levels of proteins produced have a bimodal distribution. In a large fraction of…
Mechanical stresses stemming from environmental factors are a key determinant of cellular behavior and physiology. Yet, the role of self-induced biomechanical stresses in growing bacterial colonies has remained largely unexplored. Here, we…
The vast majority of multi-cellular organisms are anisogamous, meaning that male and female sex cells differ in size. It remains an open question how this asymmetric state evolved, presumably from the symmetric isogamous state where all…
Possibility to establish macroscopic phenomenological theory for biological systems, akin to the akin to the well-established framework of thermodynamics, is briefly reviewed. We introduce the concept of an evolutionary fluctuation-response…