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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Nov 15.
Published in final edited form as: Biotechnol Adv. 2013 Sep 11;31(7):1047–1062. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2013.09.001

Table 1.

Terms used in the analysis of stem cell population heterogeneity.

Gene expression heterogeneity Cell-to-cell variation in the expression level of a gene or genes in an isogenic cell population
Micro-heterogeneity The dispersion in the distribution of a trait (e.g. specific protein content) within a state (attractor)
Macro-heterogeneity The multimodal distribution of a trait
Cell-fate heterogeneity Varying lineage specification potential among cells exposed to the same environmental condition(s)
Gene expression noise Fluctuations in gene expression due to stochasticity in pertinent biochemical reactions, e.g. random promoter activation, transcription bursts, and mRNA/protein degradation
Extrinsic noise Noise contributed from sources affecting cell properties globally, e.g. asynchronous proliferation and asymmetric division
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