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Published on: September 17, 2012
Modeling Cell Size Regulation: From Single-Cell-Level Statistics to Molecular Mechanisms and Population-Level Effects
Po-Yi Ho1, Jie Lin1, Ariel Amir1
1John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA;
Abstract:
Most microorganisms regulate their cell size. In this article, we review some of the mathematical formulations of the problem of cell size regulation. We focus on coarse-grained stochastic models and the statistics that they generate. We review the biologically relevant insights obtained from these models. We then describe cell cycle regulation and its molecular implementations, protein number regulation, and population growth, all in relation to size regulation. Finally, we discuss several future directions for developing understanding beyond phenomenological models of cell size regulation.
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