Gene expression and the myth of the average cell
Gene expression and the myth of the average cell
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DOI：
10.1016/s0962-8924(02)00002-8
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发表时间：
2003-01-01
影响因子：
19
通讯作者：
Singer, RH
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Levsky, JM;Singer, RH
我们都知道，基因表达发生在细胞内，但我们不认为表达的基本单位-一个单一的细胞。相反，我们以细胞群的形式来理解基因的表达，因为我们所有的信息都来自包含数百万个细胞的样本。从一个复杂的细胞混合物，我们试图推断出人口中的平均细胞的可能状态。事实上，我们得到的是一个平均的细胞，一个超越检测极限的生物知识的发明。我们永远不知道我们的方法平均成平均值的总体成员之间的变化。最近的技术进步允许精确测量单细胞转录状态，以更严格地研究这种变异性。基因在群体中的表达方式与我们从平均细胞中推断出来的假设有着惊人的不同。平均细胞真的存在吗？正如我们所讨论的，越来越清楚的是，它并不存在。
We all know that gene expression occurs within cells, yet we do not think of expression in terms of its fundamental unit - a single cell. Instead, we understand the expression of genes in terms of a cell population as all of our information comes from samples containing millions of cells. From a complex mixture of cells, we attempt to infer the probable state of an average cell in the population. In truth, what we obtain is an averaged cell, a contrivance for representing biological knowledge beyond the limits of detection. We never know the variation among the members of the population that our methods average into a mean. Recent technological advances allow the precise measurement of single-cell transcriptional states to study this variability more rigorously. How genes are expressed in the population is strikingly different to what we have assumed from extrapolating to an average cell. Does the average cell actually exist? As we discuss, it is becoming increasingly clear that it doesn't.