Cell-Fate Determination from Embryo to Cancer Development: Genomic Mechanism Elucidated

The elucidation of the how and when of a cell-fate change asks for a physically reasonable mechanism allowing to achieve a coordinated switching of thousands of genes within a small and highly packed cell nucleus. We previously demonstrated that whole genome expression is dynamically self-organized through the emergence of a critical point. Furthermore, it has been confirmed that this happens at both the cell-population and single-cell level through the physical principle of self-organized criticality. In this paper, we further examine the genomic mechanism which determines cell-fate changes from embryo to cancer development. The state of the critical point, acting as the organizing center of cell-fate, determines whether the genome resides in a super- or sub-critical state. In the super-critical state, a specific stochastic perturbation can spread over the entire system through the ‘genome engine’ - an autonomous critical-control genomic system, whereas in the sub-critical state, the perturbation remains at a local level. We provide a consistent framework to develop a biological regulation transition theory demonstrating the cell-fate change.