Before revision:  With an ensemble approach of a minimal gene network for pancreas development , we show that Boolean networks with canalized / sign-compatible Boolean functionscan capture essential features of cell fate dynamics and allow the estimation of relative stabilities of network states and, hence, of transition barriers.
After revision:  With an ensemble approach of a minimal gene network for pancreas development . We impose biologically motivated structural constraints (corresponding to specific type of Boolean functions) and dynamical constraints (corresponding to stable attractor states) to limit the space of BN models for pancreas development. In addition, we enforce a novel functional constraint corresponding to the relative ordering of attractor states in BN models to restrict the space of BN models to the biological relevant class. We find that BNs with canalyzing / sign-compatible Boolean functionscan capture essential features of cell fate dynamics and allow the estimation of relative stabilities of network states and, hence, of transition barriers.