An Ovol2-Zeb1 Mutual Inhibitory Circuit Governs Bidirectional and Multi-step Transition between Epithelial and Mesenchymal States
Fig 2
Incorporation of an Ovol2-Zeb1 mutual repression module results in the observation of four distinct states in EMT.
A) Influence diagram of the EMT/MET system. Blue icon: epithelial promoting factor. Yellow icon: mesenchymal promoting factor. Hexagon: extracellular input. B, C) One-parameter bifurcation diagrams of E-cadherin (Ecad) with respect to external TGF-β (B) and Ovol2 basal production rate (C). Solid curve: stable steady state. Dashed curve: unstable steady state. In B, only transition between I1 and I2 is reversible when TGF-β level is varied. In C, varying Ovol2 alone does not result in any reversible transition, but it can possibly reverse the following TGF-β-induced transitions: E-I1, E-I2 and E-M.