Reassessment of the Basis of Cell Size Control Based on Analysis of Cell-to-Cell Variability

Fundamental mechanisms governing cell size control and homeostasis are still poorly understood. The relationship between sizes at division and birth in single cells is used as a metric to categorize the basis of size homeostasis [1–3]. Cells dividing at a fixed size regardless of birth size (sizer) are expected to show a division-birth slope of 0, whereas cells dividing after growing for a fixed size increment (adder) have an expected slope of +1 [4]. These two theoretical values are, however, rarely experimentally observed. For example, rod-shaped fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells, which divide at a fixed surface area [5, 6], exhibit a division-birth slope for cell lengths of 0.25±0.02, significantly different from the expected sizer value of zero. Here we investigate possible reasons for this discrepancy by developing a mathematical model of sizer control including the relevant sources of variation. Our results support pure sizer control and show that deviation from zero slope is exaggerated by measurement of an inappropriate geometrical quantity (e.g., length instead of area), combined with cell-to-cell radius variability. The model predicts that mutants with greater errors in size sensing or septum positioning paradoxically appear to behave as better sizers. Furthermore, accounting for cell width variability, we show that pure sizer control can in some circumstances reproduce the apparent adder behaviour observed in E. coli. These findings demonstrate that analysis of geometric variation can lead to new insights into cell size control. SIGNIFICANCE How cells control their size is a fundamental but still open question. It has been assumed that the two principle methods of control, namely sizer (where cells always divide at a fixed size) and adder (where cells always add a fixed size increment), can be identified because the correlation between size at birth and size at division is equal to 0 and to +1, respectively. However, experiments mainly provide numbers in between these two values. We show that use of cell length as the size measure, together with cell-to-cell radius variability, can explain this discrepancy and support pure sizer control in fission yeast. Surprisingly, the same phenomenon might exclude adder control in bacteria like E. coli.