SYSTEMS BIOLOGY:

CELL FATES AS HIGH-DIMENSIONAL ATTRACTOR STATES OF A COMPLEX GENE REGULATORY NETWORK

Abstract

Cells in multicellular organisms switch between distinct cell fates, such as proliferation or differentiation
into specialized cell types. Genome-wide gene regulatory networks govern this behavior.
Theoretical studies of complex networks suggest that they can exhibit ordered (stable) dynamics, raising
the possibility that cell fates may represent high-dimensional attractor states. We used gene expression
profiling to show that trajectories of neutrophil differentiation converge to a common state from different
directions of a 2773-dimensional gene expression state space, providing the first experimental evidence
for a high-dimensional stable attractor that represents a distinct cellular phenotype.

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