text: user12425: I read the following line in the research paper - The dynamics and regulators of cell fate decisions are revealed by pseudotemporal ordering of single cells:
  
  During differentiation, for example, each cell makes independent fate decisions by integrating a wide array of signals from other cells and executing a complex choreography of gene-regulatory changes. Thus individual cells can execute
  the same sequence of transcriptional changes over highly varying
  time scales.
  
  Can anyone explain in simple terms what is meant by "same sequence of transcriptional changes"?
  How can it be the same sequence if during differentiation, different types of cells are formed?
  
  user77: Not all cells will perform the same sequence of transcriptional changes. The paragraph you quote simply states that differentiation isn't a step change with all cells differentiating at the exact same moment. Rather, it's a more gradual change with cells each working on their own time scale.
  
original_text: 12425: <p>I read the following line in the research paper - <a href="http://cole-trapnell-lab.github.io/pdfs/papers/trapnell-cacchiarelli-monocle.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The dynamics and regulators of cell fate decisions are revealed by pseudotemporal ordering of single cells</a>:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>During differentiation, for example, each cell makes independent fate decisions by integrating a wide array of signals from other cells and executing a complex choreography of gene-regulatory changes. Thus individual cells can execute
  the same sequence of transcriptional changes over highly varying
  time scales.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>Can anyone explain in simple terms what is meant by <strong>&quot;same sequence of transcriptional changes&quot;</strong>?</p>
  <p>How can it be the same sequence if during differentiation, different types of cells are formed?</p>
   77: <p>Not all cells will perform the same sequence of transcriptional changes. The paragraph you quote simply states that differentiation isn't a step change with all cells differentiating at the exact same moment. Rather, it's a more gradual change with cells each working on their own time scale.</p>
  