title: Intracellular Scaling Mechanisms.
abstract: Organelle function is often directly related to organelle size. However, it is not necessarily absolute size but the organelle-to-cell-size ratio that is critical. Larger cells generally have increased metabolic demands, must segregate DNA over larger distances, and require larger cytokinetic rings to divide. Thus, organelles often must scale to the size of the cell. The need for scaling is particularly acute during early development during which cell size can change rapidly. Here, we highlight scaling mechanisms for cellular structures as diverse as centrosomes, nuclei, and the mitotic spindle, and distinguish them from more general mechanisms of size control. In some cases, scaling is a consequence of the underlying mechanism of organelle size control. In others, size-control mechanisms are not obviously related to cell size, implying that scaling results indirectly from cell-size-dependent regulation of size-control mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, 01307 Dresden, Germany Integrative Research Institute (IRI) for the Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reber
authors.affiliation: The Francis Crick Institute, WC2A 3LY London, United Kingdom MRC Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, University College London, WC1E 6BT London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Nathan W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Goehring
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D048429:Cell Size; D018385:Centrosome / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D053141:Organelle Size; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014981:Xenopus