“School of Biological Sciences”
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| Paper IPM / Biological Sciences / 14910 |
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| Abstract: | |||||||
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Cellular decision-making is a key process in which cells with similar genetic
and environmental background make dissimilar decisions. This stochastic process, which
happens in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells including stem cells, causes cellular diversity
and phenotypic variation. In addition, fitness predicts and describes changes in the
genetic composition of populations throughout the evolutionary history. Fitness may thus
be defined as the ability to adapt and produce surviving offspring. Here, we present a
mathematical model to predict the fitness of a cell and to address the fundamental issue of
phenotypic variation. We study a basic decision-making scenario where a bacteriophage
lambda reproduces in E. coli, using both the lytic and the lysogenic pathways. In the lytic
pathway, the bacteriophage replicates itself within the host bacterium. This fast replication
overcrowds and in turn destroys the host bacterium. In the lysogenic pathway, however,
the bacteriophage inserts its DNA into the host genome, and is replicated simultaneously
with the host genome.
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