Cell growth articles from across Nature Portfolio

In this Tools of the Trade article, Venkova and Popard (Piel lab) discuss recent updates to the fluorescence exclusion method that now enable simultaneous measurement of cellular and nuclear size as well as investigation of small prokaryotic cells.

The different compartments of the mammary stem cell hierarchy develop into distinct breast cancer subtypes as a result of specific genetic lesions. A recent study identifies aberrant ERBB3^low luminal progenitors with altered proteostasis and translation as the cell of origin of BRCA2-mutant breast cancer.

Okreglak et al. explore the molecular mechanisms that link organellar pH dynamics with the cell cycle, and find that vacuolar pH oscillates during cell cycle phases to ensure an adequate supply of amino acids during cell division. This study offers metabolic insight into the fundamental mechanisms that couple amino acid availability to the cell cycle through pH fluctuations.

Cells use various metabolic pathways to synthesize the building blocks for growth and proliferation. To ensure balanced growth, these biosynthetic processes must be tightly coordinated. We describe a molecular machinery that senses the cellular capacity to make lipids to regulate other biosynthetic processes — such as protein synthesis — accordingly.