Interferons exhibit their key role of immune modulators through activation of the Jak-Stat signalling pathway. We know substantial amount of molecular details regarding functioning of the pathway. However, to what extend the action of the pathway is dose dependent at the single cell level remains largely unclear. Specifically it is not know if single cells respond in a digital fashion or their output is continuously dependent on the stimulant’s concentration. We have combined an information-theoretic framework with high-throughput confocal imaging of mouse embryonic fibroblasts to provide a thorough, single-cell analysis of the Jak-Stat signalling in response to interferon beta and interferon gamma. We showed that in a baseline state single cells have information hardly sufficient to distinguish between presence or absence of interferons. However they can be put in an alert state by an action of interferons, which allows them to respond more in an analogous fashion. Our results show that the accuracy with which signalling pathways transmit information is not fixed but can be modulated on the contextual basis.
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