Optimal Decoding of Cellular Identities in a Genetic Network

Mariela D Petkova (1, 2) , Gašper Tkačik (3) , William Bialek (4, 2) , Eric F Wieschaus (4, 2) , Thomas Gregor (5, 2)

1 Harvard University
2 DPPU - Department of Physics, Princeton University
3 IST Austria - Institute of Science and Technology [Klosterneuburg, Austria]
4 Princeton University
5 Physique des fonctions biologiques / Physics of Biological Functions

Highlights d Optimal decoding of gene expression levels can be derived from first principles d Applied to Drosophila gap genes, it specifies individual cells with 1% precision d Decoder correctly predicts downstream events in wild-type and mutant embryos d Molecular logic of gap gene readout must implement nearly optimal computations

Mots clés: Drosophila; cell fate; cell specification; developmental precision; embryonic patterning; genetic networks; optimality; quantitative imaging

Domaines: Bio-Informatique, Biologie Systémique [q-bio.QM]; Biophysique [physics.bio-ph]; Biologie du développement

Mariela D Petkova, Gašper Tkačik, William Bialek, Eric F Wieschaus, Thomas Gregor. Optimal Decoding of Cellular Identities in a Genetic Network. Cell, 2019, 176 (4), pp.844 - 855.e15. ⟨10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.007⟩. ⟨pasteur-03216294⟩