Lineage programming: navigating through transient regulatory states via binary decisions.
Lineage-based mechanisms are widely used to generate cell type diversity in both vertebrates and invertebrates. For the past few decades, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has served as a primary model system to study this process because of its fixed and well-characterized cell lineage. Recent studies conducted at the level of single cells and individual cis-regulatory elements suggest a general model by which cellular diversity is generated in this organism. During its developmental history a cell passes through multiple transient regulatory states characterized by the expression of specific sets of transcription factors. The transition from one state to another is driven by a general binary decision mechanism acting at each successive division in a reiterative manner and ending up with the activation of the terminal differentiation program upon terminal division. A similar cell fate specification system seems to play a role in generating cellular diversity in the nervous system of more complex organisms such as Drosophila and vertebrates.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA. vb2157@columbia.edu
Vincent
V
Bertrand
Oliver
O
Hobert
D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics; D002455:Cell Division; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000235:genetics*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
D014157:Transcription Factors