Quantitative resolution of cell fate in the early embryogenesis of Caenorhabditis elegans

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans exhibits an invariant cell lineage during its development, where the gene-molecular network that regulates the development is crucial for the biological process. While there are many molecular cell atlases describing the phenomena and key molecules involved in cell transformation, the underlying mechanisms from a systems biology perspective have received less attention. Based on an endogenous molecular-cellular theory that relates the molecular mechanisms to biological phenotypes, we constructed a model of the core endogenous network to describe the early stages of embryonic development of the C. elegans. Different cell types and intermediate cell states during development from zygotes to founder cells correspond to the steady states of the network as a nonlinear stochastic dynamical system. Connections between steady states form a topological landscape that encompasses known developmental lineage trajectories. By regulating the expression of agents in the network, we quantitatively simulated the effects of the Wnt and Notch signaling pathway on cell fate transitions and predicted the possible trajectories of transdifferentiation of the AB cell across the lineage. The success of the current study may help advance our understanding of the fundamental principles of developmental biology and cell fate determination, offering an effective tool for the quantitative analysis of cellular processes.