Dynamics and heterogeneity of a fate determinant during transition towards cell differentiation
- Northwestern University, United States
- Universitat Rovira i Virgili, United States
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Northwestern University, United States
- University of Chicago, United States
Abstract
Yan is an ETS-domain transcription factor responsible for maintaining Drosophila eye cells in a multipotent state. Using a fluorescent reporter for Yan expression, we observed a biphasic distribution of Yan in multipotent cells. Transitions to various differentiated states occurred over the course of this dynamic process, suggesting that Yan expression level does not strongly determine cell potential. Consistent with this conclusion, perturbing Yan expression by varying gene dosage had no effect on cell fate transitions. However, we observed that as cells transited to differentiation, Yan expression became highly heterogeneous and this heterogeneity was transient. Signals received via the EGF Receptor were necessary for the transience in Yan noise since genetic loss caused sustained noise. Since these signals are essential for eye cells to differentiate, we suggest that dynamic heterogeneity of Yan is a necessary element of the transition process, and cell states are stabilized through noise reduction.
Article and author information
Author details
Reviewing Editor
- Naama Barkai, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Version history
- Received: May 22, 2015
- Accepted: November 18, 2015
- Accepted Manuscript published: November 19, 2015 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: January 13, 2016 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2015, Peláez et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Dynamics and heterogeneity of a fate determinant during transition towards cell differentiation
eLife 4:e08924.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08924
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