Genomic-Thermodynamic Phase Synchronization: Maxwell's Demon-like Regulation of Cell Fate Transition.

ABSTRACT: Dynamic criticality-the balance between order and chaos-is fundamental to genome regulation and cellular transitions. In this study, we investigate the distinct behaviors of gene expression dynamics in MCF-7 breast cancer cells under two stimuli: heregulin (HRG), which promotes cell fate transitions, and epidermal growth factor (EGF), which binds to the same receptor but fails to induce cell-fate changes. We model the system as an open, nonequilibrium thermodynamic system and introduce a convergence-based approach for the robust estimation of information-thermodynamic metrics. Our analysis reveals that the Shannon entropy of the critical point (CP) dynamically synchronizes with the entropy of the rest of the whole expression system (WES), reflecting coordinated transitions between ordered

SUBMITTER: Tsuchiya M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12112187 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature