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Mathematical Modeling of Plasticity and Heterogeneity in EMT

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The Epithelial-to Mesenchymal Transition

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2179))

Abstract

The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the corresponding reverse process, mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), are dynamic and reversible cellular programs orchestrated by many changes at both biochemical and morphological levels. A recent surge in identifying the molecular mechanisms underlying EMT/MET has led to the development of various mathematical models that have contributed to our improved understanding of dynamics at single-cell and population levels: (a) multi-stability—how many phenotypes can cells attain during an EMT/MET?, (b) reversibility/irreversibility—what time and/or concentration of an EMT inducer marks the “tipping point” when cells induced to undergo EMT cannot revert?, (c) symmetry in EMT/MET—do cells take the same path when reverting as they took during the induction of EMT?, and (d) non-cell autonomous mechanisms—how does a cell undergoing EMT alter the tendency of its neighbors to undergo EMT? These dynamical traits may facilitate a heterogenous response within a cell population undergoing EMT/MET. Here, we present a few examples of designing different mathematical models that can contribute to decoding EMT/MET dynamics.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grant PHY- 1427654 and by the Ramanujan Fellowship awarded to M.K.J. by SERB, DST, Government of India (SB/S2/RJN-049/2018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PhD Program in Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Shubham Tripathi

  2. Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Shubham Tripathi & Herbert Levine

  3. Department of Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Jianhua Xing

  4. Department of Physics and Department of Bioengineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Herbert Levine

  5. Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Mohit Kumar Jolly

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  1. Shubham Tripathi
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  2. Jianhua Xing
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  3. Herbert Levine
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  4. Mohit Kumar Jolly
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jianhua Xing , Herbert Levine or Mohit Kumar Jolly .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Science and Bateson Centre, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Kyra Campbell

  2. Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD) Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Eric Theveneau

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Tripathi, S., Xing, J., Levine, H., Jolly, M.K. (2021). Mathematical Modeling of Plasticity and Heterogeneity in EMT. In: Campbell, K., Theveneau, E. (eds) The Epithelial-to Mesenchymal Transition. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2179. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0779-4_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0779-4_28

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