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Updated: Jun 11, 2025
12:04
Examination of Mitotic and Meiotic Fission Yeast Nuclear Dynamics by Fluorescence Live-cell Microscopy
Published on: June 24, 2019
9.5K
Intracellular diffusion in the cytoplasm increases with cell size in fission yeast
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|October 10, 2024
Summary
Cell size influences how molecules move within the cytoplasm. Larger cells allow faster diffusion of macromolecules, potentially due to changes in cellular composition, a finding conserved across species.
Area of Science:
- Cell Biology
- Biophysics
Background:
- Cytoplasmic diffusion impacts cellular functions, but its regulation is unclear.
- Cell size is known to alter cytoplasmic density and macromolecular composition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of cell size on macromolecular diffusion.
- To understand the biophysical and compositional changes in the cytoplasm related to cell size.
Main Methods:
- Analyzed diffusion of 40 nm nanoparticles (cytGEMs) in fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe).
- Utilized cell size mutants to correlate cell dimensions with diffusion.
- Examined proteomic changes in cells of varying sizes.
Main Results:
- Macromolecular diffusion coefficients decreased in smaller cells and increased in larger cells.
- Increased diffusion in large cells may relate to a lower DNA-to-cytoplasm ratio.
- Proteome remodeling, including ribosomal protein sub-scaling, was observed in large cells.
Conclusions:
- Cell size is a critical determinant of cytoplasmic biophysical properties and composition.
- Size-dependent proteome remodeling is conserved between yeast and human cells.
- Findings provide insights into the regulation of macromolecular diffusion in eukaryotic cells.
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