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Figure 10 | BMC Cell Biology

Figure 10

From: Control and maintenance of mammalian cell size

Figure 10

Comparison of shift-up of bacterial cells and mammalian cells. In the panel (a), after a shift of bacterial cells from slow-growth medium to fast growth medium there is an immediate change in the rate of mass synthesis to the new rate while the rate of cell division continues at the old rate for a fixed period of time (rate maintenance). At the end of this "rate maintenance" period, there is a sudden shift in the rate of cell number increase to the new rate. The thick line in panel (a) shows the change in cell size following the shift-up. In contrast, in panel (b) a slower and more gradual change in the rate of mass synthesis, concomitant with the cell number pattern also changing slowly over a period of time, will give a longer period of change in cell size. Conlon and Raff observed this slow pattern of mammalian cell size change.

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