Imagine the living cell as if it is a pulsating city, and in the heart of this city, different organs such as industrial and residential areas work, each of which has a specific function, starting with energy generation, through the processing of proteins, to the disposal of waste.
But how does the living cell decide what deserves to be expanded first? Do these organs grow in parallel with the growth of the city, or is there priorities? This is the central question that a research team led by Shankar Mukherji, assistant professor in the Department of Physics at Washington University in Saint -Louis, sought, across A recent study It was published in the “Seal Systems” patrol in June 2025.
“The main question in cell biology is, does the cell spend its budget on all orgasins equally, or gives priority to some to meet the demands of growth? We believe that the answer is the second option, and that these collective patterns represent the way in which the cell is coordinated between the organs during growth.”
Collective growth, not individual
The team used the loud yeast cells as a model of the study, as a radiographic protein mark was added in a distinctive color when exposed to light for every main organism in the yeast cell such as mitochondria, the juice gap, the Gulji, and others. These proteins make colors such as blue, green, yellow and red, as in the colors of the rainbow.
The technique was called the “rainbow yeast” because the cell looks under a microscope as if to glow with the colors of the rainbow, so each represents a different organism. In traditional photography, different colors overlap, which makes it difficult to distinguish org on each other. To solve this problem, the researchers used super -spectral imaging technology.
“I think the real innovation here is our use of super -spectral imaging technology to see the 6th membership system while we change the properties of the cell growth and size,” said Mukherjiji.
The super -photographic technique was originally developed to explore the Earth from planes and satellites, and allows the distinction of the nuances between the spectrum of colors, thus determining each organism accurately even if it comes as a color similar to another.
Thousands of cells were photographed, and the size, number and number of organelles were collected. Advanced mathematical analysis methods were used to understand how the cell organizes its memberships and redistributes them with a change in size or environmental conditions.
In analysis, it turned out that the membership of the organelles for environmental changes, such as the availability of glucose, follows coordinated patterns that allow the cell to adjust its growth without the collapse of its functions, and Mukherji explains that: “Our work reveals that the cell may use a collective approach to amend complete groups of cellular processes in an organized manner, similar to changing the entire car engine instead of replacing each part separately.”
Unexpected
The rainbow technique allowed 6 main ornamental members at the same time in the living cell, instead of examining each membership separately. The researchers found that the cells do not spend their resources evenly on all orgasms during growth. Rather, these resources are distributed according to a collective pattern called “organic patterns”.
One of the most exciting discoveries was related to a group known as the juice gap, which is a cellular organ surrounded by a membrane, found in the cells of the plant, fungi, yeast and some other organisms, which is an area full of liquid. Its basic functions include storage of water and nutrients, regulating fullness, cell support, active transport, and waste storage. While vegetable cells usually contain a single large lean gap, animal cells may have several smaller gaps.
“I am happy to predict the role of the gap,” said Mukherji
The study showed that the size of the gap is not associated with the rate of growth in the same way that the size of the nucleus or cytoplasm is associated with, which the researchers called the term symmetry. The gap, according to their perception, acts as a flexible growth regulator, i.e. growing up to equal random changes in size, and smaller if the conditions change and the cell needs to change the growth pattern.
“Imagine a cell that lives in a stable environment. If it suddenly grows up by random factors, the cytoplasm will grow and the growth rate may increase despite the lack of sufficient nutrients. In this scenario, the gap grows to reduce the growth of cytoplasm, and keeps the growth rate fixed. But if a real environmental change occurs, as a sudden increase in glucose, the gap allows the expansion of cytoplas To support the required growth.
A deeper understanding of human cells
The cell -based cell model is the yeast because it is relatively simple, and despite its simplicity, it contains the members of similar to those in human cells, and it has advanced genetic tools that allow precise modification.
“I think this is the point in which the concept of organic patterns may be of utmost importance,” said Mukherjiji.
But photographing 6 orgasms at the same time was not easy. The fluorescent colors usually used to imagine cells overlap visually, which makes distinguishing org on the organs.
“The biggest technical challenge that we faced was poor signal compared to noise. A rainbow yeast is full of colors, but it is not very bright,” said Mukherji. “We had to reduce the spatial accuracy of the images in order to collect a sufficient light from each cell. It is true that techniques such as electronic imaging exceed us in accuracy, but what distinguishes our way is the ability to photograph tens of thousands of living cells and analyze them, allowing us to follow individual cells over time.”
The aim of the study was not only to understand yeast cells, but also to prepare for the understanding of human cells, especially in pathological conditions. “It is possible to find that the natural relationship between the size of the orientation and growth in the cells becomes abnormal in diseases that include metabolic disorders, such as cancer, diabetes and immune diseases. If these patterns are signs of disease, or if they are actually participating in their occurrence, it is an excited question to work on.”