%0 Journal Article
%T A transfer function approach to measuring cell inheritance
%A Paul Rees
%A M Rowan Brown
%A Huw D Summers
%A Mark D Holton
%A Rachel J Errington
%A Sally C Chappell
%A Paul J Smith
%J BMC Systems Biology
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1752-0509-5-31
%X Here we demonstrate the use of a high throughput fluorescence measurement technique e.g. flow cytometry, to measure the fluorescence from quantum dot markers which can be used to target particular cellular sites. By relating, the fluorescence intensity measured between two time intervals to a transfer function we are able to deconvolve the inheritance of cellular material during mitosis. To demonstrate our methodology we use CdTe/ZnS quantum dots to measure the ratio of endosomes inherited by the two daughter cells during mitosis in the U2-OS, human osteoscarcoma cell line. The ratio determined is in excellent agreement with results obtained previously using a more complex and computational intensive bespoke stochastic model.The use of a transfer function approach allows us to utilise high throughput measurement of large cell populations to derive statistically relevant measurements of the inheritance of cellular material. This approach can be used to measure the inheritance of organelles, proteins etc. and also particles introduced to cells for drug delivery.The function of an organism is determined by the evolution of a cell population all descended from a single progenitor cell. The behaviour of individual cells is thus determined not only by their environment but also by the composition of cellular material inherited from the parent cell during mitosis. Therefore, the segregation of cellular material during mitosis is critical in determining the fate of the daughter cells. Previously, it was assumed that mitotic partitioning of cellular material was equal between daughter cells [1], however more recent studies have shown that certain cell components partition asymmetrically at mitosis [2-5] and there is a growing realisation that division asymmetry is a fundamental property of biological cells. For example, it has been demonstrated that proteins destined for proteasomal degradation within aggresomes are preferentially inherited by one daughter and it has been su
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1752-0509/5/31