The proportional scaling of mRNA and ribosome concentrations controls eukaryotic cell growth

[2508.14997] The proportional scaling of mRNA and ribosome concentrations controls eukaryotic cell growth Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Quantitative Biology > Populations and Evolution arXiv:2508.14997 (q-bio) [Submitted on 20 Aug 2025 ( v1 ), last revised 17 Jul 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: The proportional scaling of mRNA and ribosome concentrations controls eukaryotic cell growth Authors: Xin Gao , Michael Lanz , Rosslyn Grosely , Jonas Cremer , Joseph Puglisi , Jan M. Skotheim View PDF Abstract: Cell growth underlies nearly all eukaryotic physiology, yet its quantitative principles remain unclear. Using single-molecule ribosome tracking, spike-in RNA sequencing, and quantitative proteomics across 15 nutrient-limited conditions in budding yeast, we define how growth is controlled in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ribosome concentration scales linearly with growth rate, while peptide elongation speed remains constant at ~9 amino acids/s. While elongation is not a regulatory lever, total mRNA concentration increases proportionally with ribosomes to accelerate growth. A simple kinetic model of mRNA-ribosome binding accurately predicts the fraction of active ribosomes, growth rate, and responses to transcriptional or size perturbations. Consistent with this model, transient inhibition of mRNA degradation boosts growth by elevating mRNA concentration. These results reveal that eukaryotic cells accelerate proliferation primarily by proportionally scaling mRNA and ribosome abundance, establishing a quantitative framework for understanding eukaryotic biosynthesis. Comments: 71 pages, 6 figures Subjects: Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE) ; Biomolecules (q-bio.BM) Cite as: arXiv:2508.14997 [q-bio.PE] (or arXiv:2508.14997v2 [q-bio.PE] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.14997 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: Nature Cell Biology (2026) Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-026-02045-0 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Xin Gao [ view email ] [v1] Wed, 20 Aug 2025 18:33:45 UTC (7,217 KB) [v2] Fri, 17 Jul 2026 18:19:15 UTC (7,093 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF view license Current browse context: q-bio.PE < prev | next > new | recent | 2025-08 Change to browse by: q-bio q-bio.BM References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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