Open AccessDetermination of organ size: a need to focus on growth rate, not size
Author(s) -
Carmen M. A. Coelho
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the international journal of developmental biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.837
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1696-3547
pISSN - 0214-6282
DOI - 10.1387/ijdb.190302cc
Subject(s) - biology , cell size , perspective (graphical) , scope (computer science) , market size , evolutionary biology , competition (biology) , ring size , focus (optics) , physiology , microbiology and biotechnology , ecology , computer science , artificial intelligence , commerce , business , programming language , ring (chemistry) , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , optics
The regulation of growth and the determination of organ-size in animals is an area of research that has received much attention during the past two and a half decades. Classic regeneration and cell-competition studies performed during the last century suggested that for size to be determined, organ-size is sensed and this sense of size feeds back into the growth control mechanism such that growth stops at the “correct” size. Recent work using Drosophila imaginal discs as a system has provided a particularly detailed cellular and molecular understanding of growth. Yet, a clear mechanistic basis for size-sensing has not emerged. I re-examine these studies from a different perspective and ask whether there is scope for alternate modes of size control in which size does not need to be sensed.