Computed mean first passage times (MFPTs) of phenotype transitions in the pluripotency network.

<p>MFPTs are shown for transitions between the pluripotency (high NANOG) state (SC) and low NANOG expression states (LN(1)) (left columns) and for transitioning between the pluripotency state (SC) and the trophectoderm state (TE) (right columns), in units of the inverse transcription factor decay rate, <i>k</i>⁻¹. Transitions for Parameter Set I were computed using the WE method in rate mode while transitions for Parameter Set II were estimated from the sampled transition matrix. The definitions of SC and LN(1) are analogous to the high NANOG production (N^<i>hi</i>) and low NANOG production (<i>N</i>^<i>lo</i>) transitions measured in experiments [<a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006336#pcbi.1006336.ref008" target="_blank">8</a>, <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006336#pcbi.1006336.ref009" target="_blank">9</a>]. Increasing the adiabaticity (i.e., the rates of DNA-(un)binding, <i>h</i>, <i>f</i>), leads to rarer inter-phenotype transitions. The simulations also show that, within the same gene network for a given parameter set, inter-phenotype transition times span four orders of magnitude.