what happens if cell grows too large?

Question

This is the whole question.

What are some difficulties faced by a cell as it grows larger?

Can someone explain me thorougly? and please if u can include analogy to help me understand better. Thanks a lot

Answer 1

All right, think about the cell as a cube.

The only way the cell can get nutrients is through its sides, right? After all, it has to absorb nutrients through the plasma membrane. So, the cell's SURFACE AREA is important in determining how quickly it can uptake nutrients. However, the ENTIRE cell needs the nutrients, so they have to be distributed over the cell's VOLUME. Therefore, the surface area to volume ratio gives an indication of how well a cell will survive.

Now, let's imagine that our cubic cell is 1 micrometer on a side. Since a cube has six sides, its total surface area is 6 times the area of one side. Area = length x width, so one side is 1 micrometer x 1 micrometer = 1 micrometer². Now multiply that by six sides and you get a total surface area of 6 micrometers².

The cell's VOLUME is its length x width x height, or 1 micrometer³. So its surface area to volume ratio is 6 micrometers²:1 micrometer³.

Now let's say the cell grows so that it is 2 micrometers on a side. Now the area of a side is 2 micrometers x 2 micrometers = 4 micrometers². Its total surface area is 24 micrometers².

However, the cell's volume is 2 micrometers x 2 micrometers x 2 micrometers = 8 micrometers³. The surface area to volume ratio is now 24 micrometers²:8 micrometers³, which reduces to 3:1. The surface area to volume ratio decreases as the cell grows.

If the cell gets too large, it won't have sufficient surface area to meets its nutritional needs. So, cells have to divide every so often to keep their overall volume small relative to the surface area.

I hope that helps!

Answer 2

Cells can not develop severely better for structural motives having to do with the integrity of the exterior membrane and the fluid dynamics in the cellular. it is not purely significant for cells to divide, that's actually necessary. Like each little thing else, cells have a different life span. If the cellular did no longer reproduce, it does not be replaced.

Answer 3

Cells have three main problems if they grow too large.

1. Diffusion is too slow to provide materials to the interior of a cell that is too large. Likewise, diffusion can't adequately take out all the wastes from a cell that is too large. If diffusion is like passing buckets of water from person to person to put out a fire, this process will work well enough for a fire in a small shed. It goes fast enough to get enough water to the interior. However, if the building is large like a school, the water won't be passed in fast enough to put out the fire.
2. The DNA can't be copied fast enough to handle all the protein synthesis requirements of a cell that is too large. You know that the DNA has the instructions for making protein, and the DNA's instructions have to be copied to mRNA. This is similar to having a science lab in which the teacher has to give each pair of students oral instructions. If there are six students in the class, then the teacher can probably instruct them fast enough for them to all get the lab finished. But if there are forty students, the teacher probably can't give the instructions fast enough to take care of the needs of such a large class.
3. Large cells have a proportionately smaller amount of surface area. This is usually stated as: "Large cells have a smaller surface area to volume ratio." The surface is the plasma membrane which has the job of letting the right materials in and out of the cell. As cells increase in volume, the surface area doesn't increase at the same rate. Imagine the volume as being a room full of people, and the surface area as being the walls of the room. The walls have a door every 2 meters. If a small room is full of people, none of the people are very far from a door, and the number of doors will be adequate to let that many people out in case of an emergency. But if you picture a large room like a gym in a high school, the number of doors will not be enough to handle that many people trying to get out.

Answer 4

Hope this helps...

http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~tjacks/discrete_tumors.ppt