Ginzberg Miriam B, Kafri Ran, Kirschner Marc
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
Science. 2015 May 15;348(6236):1245075. doi: 10.1126/science.1245075.
Different animal cell types have distinctive and characteristic sizes. How a particular cell size is specified by differentiation programs and physiology remains one of the fundamental unknowns in cell biology. In this Review, we explore the evidence that individual cells autonomously sense and specify their own size. We discuss possible mechanisms by which size-sensing and size-specification may take place. Last, we explore the physiological implications of size control: Why is it important that particular cell types maintain a particular size? We develop these questions through examination of the current literature and pose the questions that we anticipate will guide this field in the upcoming years.
不同类型的动物细胞具有独特的特征性大小。特定的细胞大小如何由分化程序和生理学所决定,仍然是细胞生物学中一个基本的未知问题。在这篇综述中,我们探讨了单个细胞自主感知并确定自身大小的证据。我们讨论了大小感知和大小确定可能发生的潜在机制。最后,我们探讨了大小控制的生理学意义:为什么特定类型的细胞维持特定大小很重要?我们通过审视当前的文献来展开这些问题,并提出我们预计将在未来几年指导该领域的问题。