scholarly journals Concentration fluctuations due to size-dependent gene expression and cell-size control mechanisms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Jia ◽  
Abhyudai Singh ◽  
Ramon Grima

Intracellular reaction rates depend on concentrations and hence their levels are often regulated. However classical models of stochastic gene expression lack a cell size description and cannot be used to predict noise in concentrations. Here, we construct a model of gene product dynamics that includes a description of cell growth, cell division, size-dependent gene expression, gene dosage compensation, and size control mechanisms that can vary with the cell cycle phase. We obtain expressions for the approximate distributions and power spectra of concentration fluctuations which lead to insight into the emergence of concentration homeostasis. Furthermore, we find that (i) the conditions necessary to suppress cell division-induced concentration oscillations are difficult to achieve; (ii) mRNA concentration and number distributions can have different number of modes; (iii) certain size control strategies are ideal because they maintain constant mean concentrations whilst minimising concentration noise. Predictions are confirmed using lineage data for E. coli, fission yeast and budding yeast.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuping Chen ◽  
Bruce Futcher

Abstract Cells divide with appropriate frequency by coupling division to growth—that is, cells divide only when they have grown sufficiently large. This process is poorly understood, but has been studied using cell size mutants. In principle, mutations affecting cell size could affect the mean size (“set-point” mutants), or they could affect the variability of sizes (“homeostasis” mutants). In practice, almost all known size mutants affect set-point, with little effect on size homeostasis. One model for size-dependent division depends on a size-dependent gene expression program: Activators of cell division are over-expressed at larger and larger sizes, while inhibitors are under-expressed. At sufficiently large size, activators overcome inhibitors, and the cell divides. Amounts of activators and inhibitors determine the set-point, but the gene expression program (the rate at which expression changes with cell size) determines the breadth of the size distribution (homeostasis). In this model, set-point mutants identify cell cycle activators and inhibitors, while homeostasis mutants identify regulators that couple expression of activators and inhibitors to size. We consider recent results suggesting that increased cell size causes senescence, and suggest that at very large sizes, an excess of DNA binding proteins leads to size induced senescence.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhyudai Singh

AbstractDiverse cell types employ mechanisms to maintain size homeostasis and minimize aberrant fluctuations in cell size. It is well known that exponential cellular growth can drive unbounded intercellular variations in cell size, if the timing of cell division is size independent. Hence coupling of division timing to size is an essential feature of size control. We formulate a stochastic model, where exponential cellular growth is coupled with random cell division events, and the rate at which division events occur increases as a power function of cell size. Interestingly, in spite of nonlinearities in the stochastic dynamical model, statistical moments of the newborn cell size can be determined in closed form, providing fundamental limits to suppression of size fluctuations. In particular, formulas reveal that the magnitude of fluctuations in the newborn size is determined by the inverse of the size exponent in the division rate, and this relationship is independent of other model parameters, such as the growth rate. We further expand these results to consider randomness in the partitioning of mother cell size among daughters at the time of division. The sensitivity of newborn size fluctuations to partitioning noise is found to monotonically decrease, and approach a non-zero value, with increasing size exponent in the division rate. Finally, we discuss how our analytical results provide limits on noise control in commonly used models for cell size regulation.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey A. H. Allard ◽  
Hannah E. Opalko ◽  
Ko-Wei Liu ◽  
Uche Medoh ◽  
James B. Moseley

AbstractCell size control requires mechanisms that link cell growth with Cdk1 activity. In fission yeast, the protein kinase Cdr2 forms cortical nodes that include the Cdk1 inhibitor Wee1, along with the Wee1-inhibitory kinase Cdr1. We investigated how nodes inhibit Wee1 during cell growth. Biochemical fractionation revealed that Cdr2 nodes were megadalton structures enriched for activated Cdr2, which increases in level during interphase growth. In live-cell TIRF movies, Cdr2 and Cdr1 remained constant at nodes over time, but Wee1 localized to nodes in short bursts. Recruitment of Wee1 to nodes required Cdr2 kinase activity and the noncatalytic N-terminus of Wee1. Bursts of Wee1 localization to nodes increased 20-fold as cells doubled in size throughout G2. Size-dependent signaling was due in part to the Cdr2 inhibitor Pom1, which suppressed Wee1 node bursts in small cells. Thus, increasing Cdr2 activity during cell growth promotes Wee1 localization to nodes, where inhibitory phosphorylation of Wee1 by Cdr1 and Cdr2 kinases promotes mitotic entry.SummaryCells turn off the mitotic inhibitor Wee1 to enter into mitosis. This study shows how cell growth progressively inhibits fission yeast Wee1 through dynamic bursts of localization to cortical node structures that contain Wee1 inhibitory kinases.


2018 ◽  
Vol 217 (5) ◽  
pp. 1589-1599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey A.H. Allard ◽  
Hannah E. Opalko ◽  
Ko-Wei Liu ◽  
Uche Medoh ◽  
James B. Moseley

Cell size control requires mechanisms that link cell growth with Cdk1 activity. In fission yeast, the protein kinase Cdr2 forms cortical nodes that include the Cdk1 inhibitor Wee1 along with the Wee1-inhibitory kinase Cdr1. We investigated how nodes inhibit Wee1 during cell growth. Biochemical fractionation revealed that Cdr2 nodes were megadalton structures enriched for activated Cdr2, which increases in level during interphase growth. In live-cell total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy videos, Cdr2 and Cdr1 remained constant at nodes over time, but Wee1 localized to nodes in short bursts. Recruitment of Wee1 to nodes required Cdr2 kinase activity and the noncatalytic N terminus of Wee1. Bursts of Wee1 localization to nodes increased 20-fold as cells doubled in size throughout G2. Size-dependent signaling was caused in part by the Cdr2 inhibitor Pom1, which suppressed Wee1 node bursts in small cells. Thus, increasing Cdr2 activity during cell growth promotes Wee1 localization to nodes, where inhibitory phosphorylation of Wee1 by Cdr1 and Cdr2 kinases promotes mitotic entry.


eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yubing Li ◽  
Dianyi Liu ◽  
Cristina López-Paz ◽  
Bradley JSC Olson ◽  
James G Umen

Proliferating cells actively control their size by mechanisms that are poorly understood. The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii divides by multiple fission, wherein a ‘counting’ mechanism couples mother cell-size to cell division number allowing production of uniform-sized daughters. We identified a sizer protein, CDKG1, that acts through the retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor pathway as a D-cyclin-dependent RB kinase to regulate mitotic counting. Loss of CDKG1 leads to fewer mitotic divisions and large daughters, while mis-expression of CDKG1 causes supernumerous mitotic divisions and small daughters. The concentration of nuclear-localized CDKG1 in pre-mitotic cells is set by mother cell size, and its progressive dilution and degradation with each round of cell division may provide a link between mother cell-size and mitotic division number. Cell-size-dependent accumulation of limiting cell cycle regulators such as CDKG1 is a potentially general mechanism for size control.


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