Clonal populations of microbial cells often show a high degree of phenotypic variability under homogeneous conditions. Stochastic fluctuations in the cellular components that determine cellular states can cause two distinct subpopulations, a property called bistability. Phenotypic heterogeneity can be readily obtained by interlinking multiple gene regulatory pathways, effectively resulting in a...

The epigenetic landscape illustrates how cells differentiate through the control of gene regulatory networks. Numerous studies have investigated epigenetic gene regulation but there are limited studies on how the epigenetic landscape and the presence of pathogens influence the evolution of host traits. Here, we formulate a multistable decision-switch model involving several phenotypes with the ...

The last years accumulated substantial progress in identification of the disturbed intracellular pathways underlying vascular complications associated with Diabetes mellitus, anticipating their target in new therapies intended amelioration or even reversal of dysfunctions, for the ultimate benefit of the diabetic patient. This review up-dates the latest achievements in understanding the complex...

The opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans can switch spontaneously and reversibly between different cell forms, a capacity that may enhance adaptation to different host niches and evasion of host defense mechanisms. Phenotypic switching has been studied intensively for the white-opaque switching system of strain WO-1. To facilitate the molecular analysis of phenotypic switching, we hav...

Uncertain environments pose a tremendous challenge to populations: The selective pressures imposed by the environment can change so rapidly that adaptation by mutation alone would be too slow. One solution to this problem is given by the phenomenon of stochastic phenotype switching, which causes genetically uniform populations to be phenotypically heterogenous. Stochastic phenotype switching ha...

BACKGROUND IgE-expressing (IgE+ ) plasma cells (PCs) provide a continuous source of allergen-specific IgE that is central to allergic responses. The extreme sparsity of IgE+ cells in vivo has confined their study almost entirely to mouse models. OBJECTIVE To characterize the development pathway of human IgE+ PCs and to determine the ontogeny of human IgE+ PCs. METHODS To generate human IgE+...