Single-cell Senseless protein analysis reveals metastable states during the transition to a sensory organ fate

Ritika Giri, Shannon Brady, Dimitrios K. Papadopoulos, Richard W. Carthew*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Cell fate decisions can be envisioned as bifurcating dynamical systems, and the decision that Drosophila cells make during sensory organ differentiation has been described as such. We extended these studies by focusing on the Senseless protein which orchestrates sensory cell fate transitions. Wing cells contain intermediate Senseless numbers before their fate transition, after which they express much greater numbers of Senseless molecules as they differentiate. However, the dynamics are inconsistent with it being a simple bistable system. Cells with intermediate Senseless are best modeled as residing in four discrete states, each with a distinct protein number and occupying a specific region of the tissue. Although the states are stable over time, the number of molecules in each state vary with time. The fold change in molecule number between adjacent states is invariant and robust to absolute protein number variation. Thus, cells transitioning to sensory fates exhibit metastability with relativistic properties.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number105097
JournaliScience
Volume25
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 21 2022

Keywords

  • Biological sciences
  • Developmental biology
  • Mathematical biosciences

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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