Int. J. Dev. Biol. 64: 299 - 318 (2020)

https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.190302cc

Vol 64, Issue 4-5-6

Special Issue: Developmental Biology in India - Second Part

Determination of organ size: a need to focus on growth rate, not size

Published: 23 June 2020

Carmen M.A. Coelho*

Centre for Human Genetics, Biotech Park, Bangalore, India

Abstract

The regulation of growth and the determination of organ-size in animals is an area of research that has received much attention during the past two and a half decades. Classic regeneration and cell-competition studies performed during the last century suggested that for size to be determined, organ-size is sensed and this sense of size feeds back into the growth control mechanism such that growth stops at the “correct” size. Recent work using Drosophila imaginal discs as a system has provided a particularly detailed cellular and molecular understanding of growth. Yet, a clear mechanistic basis for size-sensing has not emerged. I re-examine these studies from a different perspective and ask whether there is scope for alternate modes of size control in which size does not need to be sensed.

Keywords

size sensing, size control, growth control, imaginal disc