Size control in mammalian cells involves modulation of both growth rate and cell cycle duration

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05393-0
• Publication Date: 2018-08-10T09:24:29Z
• Authors: Clotilde Cadart; Sylvain Monnier; Jacopo Grilli; Pablo J. Sáez; Nishit Srivastava; Rafaele Attia; Emmanuel Terriac; Buzz Baum; Marco Cosentino-L...; Matthieu Piel
• Keywords: Mammals; 0303 health sciences; Time Factors; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Science; Q; Cell Cycle; G1 Phase; Fibroblasts; Article; Cell Line; 03 medical and health sciences; Animals; Chemistry (all); Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all); Physics and Astronomy (all); Cell Division; Cell Proliferation; Cell Size

AbstractDespite decades of research, how mammalian cell size is controlled remains unclear because of the difficulty of directly measuring growth at the single-cell level. Here we report direct measurements of single-cell volumes over entire cell cycles on various mammalian cell lines and primary human cells. We find that, in a majority of cell types, the volume added across the cell cycle shows little or no correlation to cell birth size, a homeostatic behavior called “adder”. This behavior involves modulation of G1 or S-G2 duration and modulation of growth rate. The precise combination of these mechanisms depends on the cell type and the growth condition. We have developed a mathematical framework to compare size homeostasis in datasets ranging from bacteria to mammalian cells. This reveals that a near-adder behavior is the most common type of size control and highlights the importance of growth rate modulation to size control in mammalian cells.