Gene expression networks involved in multiple cellular programs coexist in individual hepatocellular cancer cells.

The gene expression networks of a single cell can be used to reveal cell type- and condition-specific patterns that account for cell states, cell identity, and its responses to environmental changes. We applied single cell sequencing datasets to define mRNA patterns and visualized potential cellular capacities among hepatocellular cancer cells. The expressing numbers and levels of genes were highly heterogenous among the cancer cells. The cellular characteristics were dependent strongly on the expressing numbers and levels of genes, especially oncogenes and anti-oncogenes, in an individual cancer cell. The transcriptional activations of oncogenes and anti-oncogenes were strongly linked to inherent multiple cellular programs, some of which oppose and contend against other processes, in a cancer cell. The gene expression networks of multiple cellular programs proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, autophagy, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, ATP production, and neurogenesis coexisted in an individual cancer cell. The findings give rise a hypothesis that a cancer cell expresses balanced combinations of genes and undergoes a given biological process by rapidly transmuting gene expressing networks.