ArticleBiophysical journal2020
The Relative Densities of Cytoplasm and Nuclear Compartments Are Robust against Strong Perturbation.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 94 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cells Dynamically Adapt Their Nuclear Volumes and Proliferation Rates During Single to Multicellular Transitions.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Macrophages Mediate Mesoscale Brain Mechanical Homeostasis.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- A label-free method for measuring the composition of multicomponent biomolecular condensates.Nature chemistry · 2025Article
- Label-free structural imaging of plant roots and microbes using third-harmonic generation microscopy.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- High Molecular Crowding in Repair Foci Surrounding DNA Breaks, Measured by Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2025Article
- RAB5A Promotes Active Fluid Wetting by Reprogramming Breast Cancer Spheroid Mechanics.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Conserved nucleocytoplasmic density homeostasis drives cellular organization across eukaryotes.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Cell state-specific cytoplasmic density controls spindle architecture and scaling.Nature cell biology · 2025Article
- Measuring Molecular Mass Densities at Subcellular Resolution Using Optical Diffraction Tomography.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Optical characterization of molecular interaction strength in protein condensates.Molecular biology of the cell · 2024Article
- Chromatin phase separation and nuclear shape fluctuations are correlated in a polymer model of the nucleus.Nucleus (Austin, Tex.) · 2024Article
- Optical characterization of molecular interaction strength in protein condensates.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Long-term zinc treatment alters the mechanical properties and metabolism of prostate cancer cells.Cancer cell international · 2024Article
- Estimation of the mass density of biological matter from refractive index measurements.Biophysical reports · 2024Article
- Age-progressive interplay of HSP-proteostasis, ECM-cell junctions and biomechanics ensures C. elegans astroglial architecture.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Pulsed stimulated Brillouin microscopy enables high-sensitivity mechanical imaging of live and fragile biological specimens.Nature methods · 2023Article
- Small leucine-rich proteoglycans inhibit CNS regeneration by modifying the structural and mechanical properties of the lesion environment.Nature communications · 2023Article
- RNA-mediated demixing transition of low-density condensates.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Review
- Barrier properties of Nup98 FG phases ruled by FG motif identity and inter-FG spacer length.Nature communications · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The cell nucleus is a compartment in which essential processes such as gene transcription and DNA replication occur. Although the large amount of chromatin confined in the finite nuclear space could install the picture of a particularly dense organelle surrounded by less dense cytoplasm, recent studies have begun to report the opposite. However, the generality of this newly emerging, opposite picture has so far not been tested. Here, we used combined optical diffraction tomography and epi-fluorescence microscopy to systematically quantify the mass densities of cytoplasm, nucleoplasm, and nucleoli of human cell lines, challenged by various perturbations. We found that the nucleoplasm maintains a lower mass density than cytoplasm during cell cycle progression by scaling its volume to match the increase of dry mass during cell growth. At the same time, nucleoli exhibited a significantly higher mass density than the cytoplasm. Moreover, actin and microtubule depolymerization and changing chromatin condensation altered volume, shape, and dry mass of those compartments, whereas the relative distribution of mass densities was generally unchanged. Our findings suggest that the relative mass densities across membrane-bound and membraneless compartments are robustly conserved, likely by different as-of-yet unknown mechanisms, which hints at an underlying functional relevance. This surprising robustness of mass densities contributes to an increasing recognition of the importance of physico-chemical properties in determining cellular characteristics and compartments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.