Variability in cellular gene expression profiles and homeostatic regulation

Abstract

One of surprising recent discoveries in biology is that the gene and protein expression profiles in cells with identical genetic and environmental makeup can exhibit large variability. The nature and the significance of this variability had been posed as one of the current fundamental questions of biology. In this letter, we argue that the observed variability in cellular gene and protein expression can be understood as an outcome of homeostatic regulation mechanisms controlling the gene and protein expression profiles.