title: Life as a moving fluid: fate of cytoplasmic macromolecules in dynamic fungal syncytia.
abstract: In fungal syncytia dozens, or even millions of nuclei may coexist in a single connected cytoplasm. Recent discoveries have exposed some of the adaptations that enable fungi to marshall these nuclei to produce complex coordinated behaviors, including cell growth, nuclear division, secretion and communication. In addition to shedding light on the principles by which syncytia (including embryos and osteoplasts) are organized, fungal adaptations for dealing with internal genetic diversity and physically dynamic cytoplasm may provide mechanistic insights into how cells generally are carved into different functional compartments. In this review we focus on enumerating the physical constraints associated with maintaining macromolecular distributions within a fluctuating and often flowing cytoplasmic interior.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Mathematics and Biomathematics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States. Electronic address: mroper@math.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roper
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53706, United States.
authors.forename: ChangHwan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: NIPHT Ltd., Edinburgh EH9 1PL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Patrick C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hickey
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, United States.
authors.forename: Amy S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Gladfelter
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism*; D005658:Fungi / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D015726:Giant Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances