Measurement and manipulation of cell size parameters in fission yeast

Abstract

Cells usually grow to a certain size before they divide. The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is an established model to dissect the molecular control of cell size homeostasis and cell cycle. In this chapter, we describe two simple methods to: (1) precisely compute geometrical parameters (cell length, diameter, surface, and volume) of single growing and dividing fission yeast cells with image analysis scripts and (2) manipulate cell diameter with microfabricated chambers and assess for cell size at division. We demonstrate the strength of these approaches in the context of growing spores, which constantly change size and shape and in deriving allometric relationships between cell geometrical parameters associated with G2/M transition. We emphasize these methods to be useful to investigate problems of growth, size, and division in fungal or bacterial cells.

Keywords: Cell cycle; Cell diameter; Cell size; Fission yeast; Microchambers; PDMS.