Control of Cell Cycle and Cell Growth by Molecular Chaperones

Cells adapt their size to both intrinsic and extrinsic demands and, among them, those that stem from growth and proliferation rates are crucial for cell size homeostasis. Here we revisit mechanisms that regulate cell cycle and cell growth in budding yeast. Cyclin Cln3, the most upstream activator of Start, is retained at the endoplasmic reticulum in early G1 and released by specific chaperones in late G1 to initiate the cell cycle. On one hand, these chaperones are rate-limiting for release of Cln3 and cell cycle entry and, on the other hand, they are required for key biosynthetic processes. We propose a model whereby the competition for specialized chaperones between growth and cycle machineries could gauge biosynthetic rates and set a critical size threshold at Start.