Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 22, 2026
10:55
Live Imaging Followed by Single Cell Tracking to Monitor Cell Biology and the Lineage Progression of Multiple Neural Populations
Published on: December 16, 2017
Understanding multimodal biological decisions from single cell and population dynamics
1Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Tsuruoka, Yamagata, Japan. kumar@ttck.keio.ac.jp
Summary
Cellular noise, including stochasticity and heterogeneity, drives phenotypic variation and cell fate. Living systems use nonlinear deterministic processes for multimodal biological decisions, sensitive to specific biological parameters.
Area of Science:
- Systems biology
- Molecular biology
- Cellular dynamics
Background:
- Single-cell resolution reveals stochastic gene and protein expression over time.
- Cellular populations exhibit heterogeneity in protein abundance.
- Stochasticity and heterogeneity are recognized as biological noise, crucial for phenotypic variation and cell fate decisions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review experimental and theoretical works on multimodal biological decisions at single-cell and population levels.
- To elucidate the role of biological noise in cellular processes.
- To understand the underlying mechanisms guiding multimodal cellular decisions.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing experimental studies utilizing single-cell and single-molecule resolution techniques.
- Analysis of theoretical models investigating cellular stochasticity and heterogeneity.
- Synthesis of findings from diverse research across biological disciplines.
Main Results:
- Biological noise (stochasticity and heterogeneity) is fundamental for generating phenotypic diversity.
- Noise plays a critical role in cell fate determination and signal amplification.
- Multimodal biological decisions are governed by nonlinear deterministic processes.
Conclusions:
- Living systems employ well-defined nonlinear deterministic processes to achieve multimodal decisions.
- These processes are highly sensitive to specific ranges of biological parameters.
- Understanding these deterministic underpinnings of noise is key to deciphering cellular behavior.
Related Concept Videos
01:12Analysis of Population Pharmacokinetic Data
Analysis of population pharmacokinetic data involves studying the behavior of drugs within diverse populations to understand their pharmacokinetic parameters. Traditional pharmacokinetic methods typically involve collecting samples from a few individuals and estimating these parameters. While these methods are commonly used, they have limitations in capturing the variability in drug response among individuals or heterogeneous populations. Population pharmacokinetics is employed to address these...
01:23Overview of Cell Signaling
Despite the protective membrane that separates a cell from the environment, cells need the ability to detect and respond to environmental changes. Additionally, cells often need to communicate with one another. Unicellular and multicellular organisms use a variety of cell signaling mechanisms to communicate with the environment.
Cells respond to many types of information, often through receptor proteins positioned on the membrane. For example, skin cells respond to and transmit touch...
Cells respond to many types of information, often through receptor proteins positioned on the membrane. For example, skin cells respond to and transmit touch...