%0 Journal Article
%T Entropy, Ergodicity and Stem Cell Multipotency
%A Sonya J. Ridden
%A Hannah H. Chang
%A Konstantinos C. Zygalakis
%A Ben D. MacArthur
%J Quantitative Biology
%D 2015
%I arXiv
%X Populations of mammalian stem cells commonly exhibit considerable cell-cell variability. However, the functional role of this diversity is unclear. Here, we analyze expression fluctuations of the stem cell surface marker Sca1 in mouse hematopoietic progenitor cells using a simple stochastic model and find that the observed dynamics naturally lie close to a critical state, thereby producing a diverse population that is able to respond rapidly to environmental changes. We propose an information-theoretic interpretation of these results that views cellular multipotency as an instance of maximum entropy statistical inference.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1504.07266v3