HLH-2/E2A Expression Links Stochastic and Deterministic Elements of a Cell Fate Decision during C. elegans Gonadogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Stochastic mechanisms diversify cell fate in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans [1-4]. In the anchor cell/ventral uterine precursor cell (AC/VU) fate decision during C. elegans gonadogenesis, two "α cells," each with equal potential to be an AC or a VU, interact via LIN-12/Notch and its ligand LAG-2/DSL [5, 6]. This LIN-12/Notch-mediated interaction engages feedback mechanisms that amplify a stochastic initial difference between the two α cells, ensuring that the cell with higher lin-12 activity becomes the VU while the other becomes the AC [7-9]. The initial difference between the α cells was originally envisaged as a random imbalance from "noise" in lin-12 expression/activity [6]. However, subsequent evidence that the relative birth order of the α cells biases their fates suggeste

SUBMITTER: Attner MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6759384 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature