title: Size control: the developmental physiology of body and organ size regulation.
abstract: The developmental regulation of final body and organ size is fundamental to generating a functional and correctly proportioned adult. Research over the last two decades has identified a long list of genes and signaling pathways that, when perturbed, influence final body size. However, body and organ size are ultimately a characteristic of the whole organism, and how these myriad genes and pathways function within a physiological context to control size remains largely unknown. In this review, we first describe the major size-regulatory signaling pathways: the Insulin/IGF-, RAS/RAF/MAPK-, TOR-, Hippo-, and JNK-signaling pathways. We then explore what is known of how these pathways regulate five major aspects of size regulation: growth rate, growth duration, target size, negative growth and growth coordination. While this review is by no means exhaustive, our goal is to provide a conceptual framework for integrating the mechanisms of size control at a molecular-genetic level with the mechanisms of size control at a physiological level.
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
authors: Rewatee H
authors: RH
authors: Gokhale
authors: Department of Biology, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL, USA.|Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
authors: Alexander W
authors: AW
authors: Shingleton
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size / Q000502:physiology*; D048788:Growth and Development / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D000090683:Hippo Signaling Pathway; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000378:metabolism; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I / Q000378:metabolism; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System / Q000502:physiology; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D009929:Organ Size / Q000502:physiology*; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C583557:IGF1 protein, human; D007328:Insulin; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases; D020928:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases