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Origins of regulated cell-to-cell variability

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 12, pages 119–125 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Single-cell measurements and lineage-tracing experiments are revealing that phenotypic cell-to-cell variability is often the result of deterministic processes, despite the existence of intrinsic noise in molecular networks. In most cases, this determinism represents largely uncharacterized molecular regulatory mechanisms, which places the study of cell-to-cell variability in the realm of molecular cell biology. Further research in the field will be important to advance quantitative cell biology because it will provide new insights into the mechanisms by which cells coordinate their intracellular activities in the spatiotemporal context of the multicellular environment.

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Figure 1: Explaining the regulated cell-to-cell variability of SV40 infection.
Figure 2: Measuring cellular activities in the full spectrum of the mammalian population context.
Figure 3: Revealing determinism in cell-to-cell variability.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all members of the laboratory for stimulating discussions. Research in the L.P. laboratory is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, SystemsX.ch, the European Union; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich and the University of Zürich.

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  1. Berend Snijder and Lucas Pelkmans are at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, Wolfgang Pauli-Str. 16, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.,

    Berend Snijder & Lucas Pelkmans

  2. Lucas Pelkmans is also at the University of Zürich, Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, Winterthurerstr. 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.,

    Lucas Pelkmans

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Snijder, B., Pelkmans, L. Origins of regulated cell-to-cell variability. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 12, 119–125 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3044

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