Mechanisms controlling variability via cellular dependencies under sudden microenvironmental changes

Elucidate the specific mechanisms by which cell-cell communication and cellular dependencies regulate population-level variability in multicellular systems responding to sudden microenvironmental changes.

Background

The article discusses theoretical and experimental indications that intercellular communication can modulate variability among single cells, reducing it when intracellular processes are highly stochastic and enhancing it under lower intrinsic variability. This modulation is critical for coordinated multicellular responses.

Despite these insights, the authors explicitly state that the specific regulatory mechanisms linking cellular dependencies to variability control in rapidly changing environments remain unclear.