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CELL BIOPHYSICS

Fatal decision made under pressure

Nature Physics volume 17, pages 879–880 (2021)Cite this article

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A life-or-death choice determines the fate of reproductive cells. It has long been assumed that the choice is genetically regulated, but it now seems that the decision may instead be controlled by intracellular pressure.

The reproductive germ cells of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans make a decision, which can be summarized by the phrase ‘get rich or die trying’. They either form large, resource-rich egg cells that give rise to the next generation, or go into programmed cell death and donate their contents to their growing neighbours through bridges that connect them. The genetic mechanisms regulating an earlier germ-cell-fate decision are extraordinarily well characterized1, due in part to the worm’s longstanding status as a model organism. But now, writing in Nature Physics, Nicolas Chartier and colleagues2 report that the later fate of these cells is determined not by a genetically encoded switch but by the constraints arising from changes in intracellular pressure — suggesting that genetic pathways can take their cue from physics.

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Fig. 1: Fluid flux through the germline modelled as a two-balloon instability.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Kacy L. Gordon

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  1. Kacy L. Gordon
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Correspondence to Kacy L. Gordon.

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Gordon, K.L. Fatal decision made under pressure. Nat. Phys. 17, 879–880 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01239-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01239-7

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