Mini-course on big cells

Across taxa, cell size varies 400,000-fold from the tiniest bacterial cells, 0.2 µm in diameter, to the ostrich egg, which spans 8 cm. Why does such diversity exist? How is size regulated? And how do cells of different sizes scale their contents as they grow and divide? Through seminar-style lectures, students will learn about current and historic models of why cell size matters for physiology and function and how the amounts of cellular components are regulated in concert with one another. Drawing from readings, students will design and carry out tractable experiments on diverse, unicellular eukaryotes.