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How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification

On its path from a fertilized egg to one of the many cell types in a multicellular organism, a cell turns the blank canvas of its early embryonic state into a molecular profile fine-tuned to achieve a vital organismal function. This remarkable transformation emerges from the interplay between dynami...

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Autores principales: Mircea, Maria, Semrau, Stefan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Portland Press Ltd. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8786291/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34854897
http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BST20210135
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author Mircea, Maria
Semrau, Stefan
author_facet Mircea, Maria
Semrau, Stefan
author_sort Mircea, Maria
collection PubMed
description On its path from a fertilized egg to one of the many cell types in a multicellular organism, a cell turns the blank canvas of its early embryonic state into a molecular profile fine-tuned to achieve a vital organismal function. This remarkable transformation emerges from the interplay between dynamically changing external signals, the cell's internal, variable state, and tremendously complex molecular machinery; we are only beginning to understand. Recently developed single-cell omics techniques have started to provide an unprecedented, comprehensive view of the molecular changes during cell-type specification and promise to reveal the underlying gene regulatory mechanism. The exponentially increasing amount of quantitative molecular data being created at the moment is slated to inform predictive, mathematical models. Such models can suggest novel ways to manipulate cell types experimentally, which has important biomedical applications. This review is meant to give the reader a starting point to participate in this exciting phase of molecular developmental biology. We first introduce some of the principal molecular players involved in cell-type specification and discuss the important organizing ability of biomolecular condensates, which has been discovered recently. We then review some of the most important single-cell omics methods and relevant findings they produced. We devote special attention to the dynamics of the molecular changes and discuss methods to measure them, most importantly lineage tracing. Finally, we introduce a conceptual framework that connects all molecular agents in a mathematical model and helps us make sense of the experimental data.
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spelling pubmed-87862912022-02-01 How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification Mircea, Maria Semrau, Stefan Biochem Soc Trans Review Articles On its path from a fertilized egg to one of the many cell types in a multicellular organism, a cell turns the blank canvas of its early embryonic state into a molecular profile fine-tuned to achieve a vital organismal function. This remarkable transformation emerges from the interplay between dynamically changing external signals, the cell's internal, variable state, and tremendously complex molecular machinery; we are only beginning to understand. Recently developed single-cell omics techniques have started to provide an unprecedented, comprehensive view of the molecular changes during cell-type specification and promise to reveal the underlying gene regulatory mechanism. The exponentially increasing amount of quantitative molecular data being created at the moment is slated to inform predictive, mathematical models. Such models can suggest novel ways to manipulate cell types experimentally, which has important biomedical applications. This review is meant to give the reader a starting point to participate in this exciting phase of molecular developmental biology. We first introduce some of the principal molecular players involved in cell-type specification and discuss the important organizing ability of biomolecular condensates, which has been discovered recently. We then review some of the most important single-cell omics methods and relevant findings they produced. We devote special attention to the dynamics of the molecular changes and discuss methods to measure them, most importantly lineage tracing. Finally, we introduce a conceptual framework that connects all molecular agents in a mathematical model and helps us make sense of the experimental data. Portland Press Ltd. 2021-12-17 2021-12-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8786291/ /pubmed/34854897 http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BST20210135 Text en © 2021 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Review Articles
Mircea, Maria
Semrau, Stefan
How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification
title How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification
title_full How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification
title_fullStr How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification
title_full_unstemmed How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification
title_short How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification
title_sort how a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification
topic Review Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8786291/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34854897
http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BST20210135
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