scholarly journals Branching processes with resetting as a model for cell division

Author(s):  
Arthur Genthon ◽  
Reinaldo Garcia Garcia ◽  
David Lacoste

Abstract We study the Stochastic Thermodynamics of cell growth and division using a theoretical framework based on branching processes with resetting. Cell division may be split into two sub-processes: branching, by which a given cell gives birth to an identical copy of itself, and resetting, by which some properties of the daughter cells (such as their size or age) are reset to new values following division. We derive the first and second laws of Stochastic Thermodynamics for this process, and identify separate contributions due to branching and resetting. We apply our framework to well-known models of cell size control, such as the sizer, the timer, and the adder. We show that the entropy production of resetting is negative and that of branching is positive for these models in the regime of exponential growth of the colony. This property suggests an analogy between our model for cell growth and division and heat engines, and the introduction of a thermodynamic efficiency, which quantifies the conversion of one form of entropy production to another.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clotilde Cadart ◽  
Sylvain Monnier ◽  
Jacopo Grilli ◽  
Rafaele Attia ◽  
Emmanuel Terriac ◽  
...  

SummaryDespite decades of research, it remains unclear how mammalian cell growth varies with cell size and across the cell division cycle to maintain size control. Answers have been limited by the difficulty of directly measuring growth at the single cell level. Here we report direct measurement of single cell volumes over complete cell division cycles. The volume added across the cell cycle was independent of cell birth size, a size homeostasis behavior called “adder”. Single-cell growth curves revealed that the homeostatic behavior relied on adaptation of G1 duration as well as growth rate modulations. We developed a general mathematical framework that characterizes size homeostasis behaviors. Applying it on datasets ranging from bacteria to mammalian cells revealed that a near-adder is the most common type of size control, but only mammalian cells achieve it using modulation of both cell growth rate and cell-cycle progression.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Truc Do ◽  
Kaitlin Schaefer ◽  
Ace George Santiago ◽  
Kathryn A. Coe ◽  
Pedro B. Fernandes ◽  
...  

AbstractBacteria are protected by a polymer of peptidoglycan that serves as an exoskeleton. In Staphylococcus aureus, the enzymes that assemble peptidoglycan move during the cell cycle from the periphery, where they are active during growth, to the division site where they build the partition between daughter cells. But how peptidoglycan synthesis is regulated throughout the cell cycle is not understood. Here we identify a membrane protein complex that spatially regulates S. aureus peptidoglycan synthesis. This complex consists of an amidase that removes peptide chains from uncrosslinked peptidoglycan and a partner protein that controls its activity. Typical amidases act after cell division to hydrolyze peptidoglycan between daughter cells so they can separate. However, we show that this amidase controls cell growth. In its absence, excess peptidoglycan synthesis occurs at the cell periphery, causing cells to grow so large that cell division is defective. We show that cell growth and division defects due to loss of this amidase can be mitigated by attenuating the polymerase activity of the major S. aureus peptidoglycan synthase. Our findings lead to a model wherein the amidase complex regulates the density of peptidoglycan assembly sites to control peptidoglycan synthase activity at a given cellular location. Removal of peptide chains from peptidoglycan at the cell periphery promotes synthase movement to midcell during cell division. This mechanism ensures that cell expansion is properly coordinated with cell division.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrej Ondracka ◽  
Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo

AbstractCoenocytes (multinucleated cells formed by sequential nuclear divisions without cytokinesis) are commonly found across the eukaryotic kingdom, including in animals, plants and several lineages of unicellular eukaryotes. Despite their commonality, little is known about how cell growth, nuclear divisions and cell divisions are coordinated in coenocytes. Among the unicellular eukaryotes that form coenocytes are ichthyosporeans, a lineage of unicellular holozoans that are of significant interest due to their phylogenetic placement as one of the closest relatives to animals. Here, we characterize the coenocytic cell division cycle in the ichthyosporean Sphaeroforma arctica. In laboratory conditions, we observed that S. arctica cells undergo a highly regular periodic coenocytic cell cycle. Nuclear division cycles occur synchronously within the coenocyte and in regular time intervals (~11 hours per nuclear cycle) until reaching 64-128 nuclei and releasing daughter cells. The duration of the nuclear division cycles is constant across a wide range of nutrient concentration. In contrast, the volume of the coenocytes increase more slowly in lower nutrient concentration, which also results in smaller newborn daughter cells. This suggests that S. arctica cells are capable to adapt the cell growth rate to nutrient concentration while maintaining the timing of nuclear division cycles, suggesting that in ichthyosporeans the mechanisms regulating highly periodic nuclear division cycles operate independently from mechanisms sensing the cell size.


Author(s):  
Krishan Awtar

Exposure of cells to low sublethal but mitosis-arresting doses of vinblastine sulfate (Velban) results in the initial arrest of cells in mitosis followed by their subsequent return to an “interphase“-like stage. A large number of these cells reform their nuclear membranes and form large multimicronucleated cells, some containing as many as 25 or more micronuclei (1). Formation of large multinucleate cells is also caused by cytochalasin, by causing the fusion of daughter cells at the end of an otherwise .normal cell division (2). By the repetition of this process through subsequent cell divisions, large cells with 6 or more nuclei are formed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuto Ashida ◽  
Takahiro Sagawa

AbstractThe quest to identify the best heat engine has been at the center of science and technology. Considerable studies have so far revealed the potentials of nanoscale thermal machines to yield an enhanced thermodynamic efficiency in noninteracting regimes. However, the full benefit of many-body interactions is yet to be investigated; identifying the optimal interaction is a hard problem due to combinatorial explosion of the search space, which makes brute-force searches infeasible. We tackle this problem with developing a framework for reinforcement learning of network topology in interacting thermal systems. We find that the maximum possible values of the figure of merit and the power factor can be significantly enhanced by electron-electron interactions under nondegenerate single-electron levels with which, in the absence of interactions, the thermoelectric performance is quite low in general. This allows for an alternative strategy to design the best heat engines by optimizing interactions instead of single-electron levels. The versatility of the developed framework allows one to identify full potential of a broad range of nanoscale systems in terms of multiple objectives.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1160
Author(s):  
Atul Pradhan ◽  
Nagaraja Mukkayyan ◽  
Kishor Jakkala ◽  
Parthasarathi Ajitkumar

Twenty to thirty percent of the septating mycobacterial cells of the mid-log phase population showed highly deviated asymmetric constriction during division (ACD), while the remaining underwent symmetric constriction during division (SCD). The ACD produced short-sized cells (SCs) and normal/long-sized cells (NCs) as the sister–daughter cells, but with significant differential susceptibility to antibiotic/oxidative/nitrite stress. Here we report that, at 0.2% glycerol, formulated in the Middlebrook 7H9 medium, a significantly high proportion of the cells were divided by SCD. When the glycerol concentration decreased to 0.1% due to cell-growth/division, the ACD proportion gradually increased until the ACD:SCD ratio reached ~50:50. With further decrease in the glycerol levels, the SCD proportion increased with concomitant decrease in the ACD proportion. Maintenance of glycerol at 0.1%, through replenishment, held the ACD:SCD proportion at ~50:50. Transfer of the cells from one culture with a specific glycerol level to the supernatant from another culture, with a different glycerol level, made the cells change the ACD:SCD proportion to that of the culture from which the supernatant was taken. RT-qPCR data showed the possibility of diadenosine tetraphosphate phosphorylase (MSMEG_2932), phosphatidylinositol synthase (MSMEG_2933), and a Nudix family hydrolase (MSMEG_2936) involved in the ACD:SCD proportion-change in response to glycerol levels. We also discussed its physiological significance.


1961 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 354-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
I.L. Cameron ◽  
D.M. Prescott
Keyword(s):  

2005 ◽  
Vol 171 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjon Audhya ◽  
Francie Hyndman ◽  
Ian X. McLeod ◽  
Amy S. Maddox ◽  
John R. Yates ◽  
...  

Cytokinesis completes cell division and partitions the contents of one cell to the two daughter cells. Here we characterize CAR-1, a predicted RNA binding protein that is implicated in cytokinesis. CAR-1 localizes to germline-specific RNA-containing particles and copurifies with the essential RNA helicase, CGH-1, in an RNA-dependent fashion. The atypical Sm domain of CAR-1, which directly binds RNA, is dispensable for CAR-1 localization, but is critical for its function. Inhibition of CAR-1 by RNA-mediated depletion or mutation results in a specific defect in embryonic cytokinesis. This cytokinesis failure likely results from an anaphase spindle defect in which interzonal microtubule bundles that recruit Aurora B kinase and the kinesin, ZEN-4, fail to form between the separating chromosomes. Depletion of CGH-1 results in sterility, but partially depleted worms produce embryos that exhibit the CAR-1–depletion phenotype. Cumulatively, our results suggest that CAR-1 functions with CGH-1 to regulate a specific set of maternally loaded RNAs that is required for anaphase spindle structure and cytokinesis.


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