Intracellular scaling mechanisms
Abstract
Organelle function is often directly related to organelle size. However, it is not necessarily absolute size but the organelle-to-cell-size ratio that is critical. Larger cells generally have increased metabolic demands, must segregate DNA over larger distances, and require larger cytokinetic rings to divide. Thus, organelles often must scale to the size of the cell. The need for scaling is particularly acute during early development during which cell size can change rapidly. Here, we highlight scaling mechanisms for cellular structures as diverse as centrosomes, nuclei, and the mitotic spindle, and distinguish them from more general mechanisms of size control. In some cases, scaling is a consequence of the underlying mechanism of organelle size control. In others, size-control mechanisms are not obviously related to cell size, implying that scaling results indirectly from cell-size-dependent regulation of size-control mechanisms.
Journal details
Volume 7
Issue number 12
Pages a019067
Publication date
Full text links
Publisher website (DOI) 10.1101/cshperspect.a019067
Europe PubMed Central 26254310
Pubmed 26254310
Keywords
Related topics
Type of publication