The distribution of nuclear mass, volume and dimensions

Our own measurements and a review of measurements presented in the literature showed that the mass, volume and dimensions of cell nuclei are distributed with a skew towards higher values, a distribution that can best be described as lognormal. The practical consequences of this finding suggest that the measurements of mass and of size should be plotted on a logarithmic scale while DNA values are appropriately presented on a linear scale. The distribution of DNA values of normal cells represents errors introduced by random disturbances in preparations and measurements.