Search

Summary Early retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) in vertebrates produce lineages that vary greatly both in terms of cell number and fate composition, yet how this variability is achieved remains unknown. One possibility is that these RPCs are individually distinct and that each gives rise to a unique lineage. Another is that stochastic mechanisms play upon the determinative machinery of equipotent early RPCs to drive clonal variability. Here we show that a simple model, based on the independent firing of key fate-influencing transcription factors, can quantitatively account for the intrinsic clonal variance in the zebrafish retina and predict the distributions of neuronal cell types in clones where one or more of these fates are made unavailable., Graphical Abstract, Highlights • A simple quantitative model can explain clonal variability in the retina • This model is based on the firing probabilities of key transcription factors • These probabilities are shown to be largely independent of each other • The environment has only a minor effect on these probabilities, Boije et al. show that a simple model, based on independent and probabilistic firing of key fate-influencing transcription factors, can quantitatively account for intrinsic clonal variance in zebrafish retina. Robust distributions generated through stochastic processes can explain how one retina is almost invariant from the next despite high clonal variability.