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Why are cells small?

https://burrito.bio/essays/what-limits-a-cells-size
33•mailyk•1h ago

Comments

chasil•54m ago
Not all are?

Largest eukaryote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa

largest prokaryote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomargarita_namibiensis

DaveSchmindel•21m ago
> Cell sizes are not fixed, however, even within a single species. Cells often swell as they increase their production of proteins and metabolites in preparation for division. This is in line with biology’s only rule: namely, there are exceptions to every rule!

> Case in point: a giant bacterium called Thiomargarita magnifica can extend about one centimeter in length, so large that it can be seen by the naked eye. It does so by breaking the surface area-to-volume rule, filling between 65–80 percent of its internal volume with an empty vacuole. In other words, it pushes most of its molecules to the cell periphery, thus shortening diffusion distances.

There is also a captioned image of bubble algae in the post.

embedding-shape•16m ago
Those still seem kind of small? Why not the size of an mature olive tree for example? I'm guessing the article may answer this, haven't gotten that far yet.
WorkerBee28474•54m ago
Another answer is: They're not - at least in some plants:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetabularia

socalgal2•44m ago
Cells are small? compared to what? An ostrich egg is a single cell
graypegg•36m ago
I don't know for sure here, but isn't the ostrich IN the egg a multicellular animal? I would assume the first point where the egg contains anything that will become the ostrich, mitosis is happening to make more ostrich cells. I'm assuming there's always cell walls and nucleuses every step of the way here, and the egg and ostrich are never just one big cell.

I could be off base here though, I'm really channeling grade 9 bio class from decades ago!

limbero•22m ago
You're correct, but only for fertilized eggs. Unfertilized eggs are single cells.
otherme123•21m ago
The trick is that the egg is a ball with one small cell (the ovum) that happens to have also a huge reservoir of food for the future ostrich. There is a moment when there is only once cell in the egg, just after the fussion of the ovum and the sperm cell.
knappa•15m ago
Unfertilized bird eggs are single cells, fertilized eggs should be multicellular by the time they are laid.
jackmalpo•17m ago
skeletal muscle cells can be many cm in length
kayo_20211030•41m ago
> A simplistic answer is that evolution has made each cell the size best suited to its function.

Yeah. That's probably it. Really, it probably is the right answer.

limbero•26m ago
Nitpick maybe, but I don't think oocytes are the largest cells, it pretty much has to be some sort of neuron. A sensory neuron for eg. someplace in the foot will be almost as long as the person is tall, and even if the neuron is extremely thin, it's gotta beat the oocyte for volume.
gilleain•20m ago
Surface area to volume ratio?
dmd•19m ago
That's literally the first thing in the article.
bilsbie•15m ago
I never bought into the egg thing. There’s clearly a distinct cell in the center that’s going to divide and grow inside the egg. The egg itself isn’t undergoing mitosis.

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