RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Variations of intracellular density during the cell cycle arise from tip-growth regulation in fission yeast JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.10.21.349696 DO 10.1101/2020.10.21.349696 A1 Pascal D. Odermatt A1 Teemu P. Miettinen A1 Joon Ho Kang A1 Emrah Bostan A1 Scott Manalis A1 Kerwyn Casey Huang A1 Fred Chang YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/14/2020.10.21.349696.abstract AB Intracellular density impacts the physical nature of the cytoplasm and can globally affect cellular processes, yet density regulation remains poorly understood. Here, using a new quantitative phase imaging method, we determined that dry-mass density varies during the cell cycle in fission yeast. Density decreased during G2, increased in mitosis and cytokinesis, and rapidly dropped at cell birth. These density variations were explained by a constant rate of biomass synthesis, coupled to slowdown of volume growth during cell division and rapid expansion post-cytokinesis. Arrest at specific cell-cycle stages led to continued increases or decreases in density. Spatially heterogeneous patterns of density suggested links between density regulation and tip growth, and septum bending away from higher-density daughters linked density to intracellular osmotic pressure. Our results demonstrate that systematic density variations during the cell cycle are predominantly due to modulation of volume expansion, and reveal functional consequences of density gradients and cell-cycle arrests.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.