Predictive understanding of discrete cell-fate decision in early embryonic development

One of the most remarkable features of life is a single cell's ability to make precise decisions in response to internal and external cues. These decisions are controlled by interconnected gene regulatory networks encoded by the information contained in the genomic DNA. Biology has made tremendous advances in identifying the regulatory networks that contribute to cell-fate decisions, but these studies often lack predictive theory. Positive autoregulation has been proposed as a general mechanism for establishing and maintaining these discrete cell-fate decisions. Here, we quantitatively dissect the role of autoregulation and bistability in establishing binary cellular fates in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Specifically, we apply recently developed single-cell live imaging techniques to quantify transcriptional and protein dynamics of the Drosophila pair-rule gene fushi tarazu as cells decide whether to commit to the expression of the gene.