Molecular mechanisms of cell size control

Characterize the molecular mechanisms governing cell size control by identifying and delineating the specific biochemical processes that regulate cellular growth and division to maintain size homeostasis in living cells.

Background

The paper surveys biological and mathematical foundations of cell size regulation, emphasizing sizer, timer, and adder mechanisms and presenting PDE-based models and exact solutions for population-level size distributions. While these frameworks capture how growth and division rules shape distributions, the underlying molecular pathways that implement size control in cells remain incompletely understood.

The authors note that although signaling pathways such as mTOR and ribosomal/division protein synthesis have been implicated, there is still no complete molecular description of how cells sense size and couple growth to division to maintain homeostasis. This motivates further mechanistic research beyond the macroscopic models presented.