How do cell determine what size to grow before dividing?
Answers
Nuclear Cytoplasmic Ratio : When the cell reaches the threshold ratio, it stops growing further and differentiates to perform specialised functions or may start mitosis to give rise to new cells.
Genetic Machinery: This is the root of everything. Every aspect of the cell is derived from this on a molecular basis. The genes in the DNA of a cell also determine the size the cell would grow in its lifetime and these are mostly because of adaptive evolution.
Contact Inhibition: It is the property of cell where a cell stops growing any further when it is inhibited by the cell membrane of adjcent cells on a cellular pool. Cancer cells lose this property.
Time: Yeah, you heard it right. Time also has an inhibiting effect on growth. As time passes, cells grow old i.e a lot of metabolic processes are inhibited due to accumulation of waste products.. and yes, the most important ones are Free Radicals.
Free radicals are known to have severe deleterious effects on our body. Almost every disease in our body nowadays are related to free radicals. They cause oxidative stress and hamper the growth of cell.
The first three factors are predetermined and that helps the cell to know exactly what size to grow.
The last factor depends on the surrounding environment of the cell.
large cells divide rapidly to cut down the size of the cell in half. research research show size measurement in G phase of cell division the very Complex cells cycle is is the processes where cells divide and make a new one.
