Figure 1.

Schematic representation of the genomic mechanism for the cell-fate change. (1–4) The critical point (CP) corresponds to the center of mass (CM) and represents a specific set of critical genes acting as a genome attractor. The CP has activated (ON) and deactivated (OFF) states. ON/OFF switching of the CP state occurs through switching of its singular behaviors, i.e., change in the critical transition of a specific critical gene set. Changes in the state of the CP, such as ON–OFF or OFF–ON switching, guide the genome into a super-critical state; thus, these perturbations can spread over the entire system in a highly cooperative manner. Chromatin remodeling plays a role as the material basis of the self-organized critical (SOC) control of genome expression [10]. (5) Due to the CP acting as a genome attractor, the self-organization of gene expression develops an autonomous critical-control genomic system (genome engine) through the formation of dominant cyclic flux between local critical states (distinct expression domains according to the degree of nrmsf: Section 4.2.1), where the local sub-critical state is the generator (see details in [7]). Coherent perturbation of the genome engine through changes in the CP (ON to OFF, OFF to ON, etc.) drives the cell-fate change. Before the cell-fate change, the genome (expression) system passes through a non-equilibrium fixed point (stable point of the thermodynamically open system). These five points support the development of a time-evolutional transition theory of biological regulation. Throughout this report, the whole-genome expression vector c(t_j) at t = t_j represents the CM expression vector, in which the center of mass of whole-genome expression, CM(t_j) is subtracted from each expression (Section 4.2.3).