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arXiv · 1504.07266

Entropy, Ergodicity and Stem Cell Multipotency

Sonya J. Ridden·Hannah H. Chang·Konstantinos C. Zygalakis·Ben D. MacArthur
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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.

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Sonya J. Ridden, Hannah H. Chang, Konstantinos C. Zygalakis, Ben D. MacArthur. 2015-10-16. Entropy, Ergodicity and Stem Cell Multipotency. https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.07266

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