Balance of osmotic pressures determines the nuclear-to-cytoplasmic volume ratio of the cell

SignificanceFor over a century, it has been known that the ratio of the nuclear and cytoplasm volumes (NC ratio), rather than the separate volumes, is constant among cells of many types of organisms. Changes of the NC ratio are associated with cancerous transformations, suggesting that the ratio has...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2022-05, Vol.119 (21), p.e2118301119-e2118301119
Main Authors: Deviri, Dan, Safran, Samuel A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological Sciences
Chromatin
Cytoplasm
Gene expression
Genomes
Muscles
Nuclei (cytology)
Osmosis
Osmotic pressure
Physical Sciences
Proteins
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Summary:SignificanceFor over a century, it has been known that the ratio of the nuclear and cytoplasm volumes (NC ratio), rather than the separate volumes, is constant among cells of many types of organisms. Changes of the NC ratio are associated with cancerous transformations, suggesting that the ratio has physiological importance. Notably, the dominant regulatory mechanism of the NC ratio has not been identified. Here, we use physical estimates of the forces implicated in nuclear volume determination and show that they are dominated by the osmotic pressure of actively transported proteins. Inspired by this, we formulate a minimal model for the cytoplasmic and nuclear volumes that predicts the NC ratio and the factors that modulate it, in agreement with published experiments.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2118301119