Stochasticity in mammalian cell growth rates drives cell-to-cell variability independently of cell size and divisions

Abstract

Cell growth rates exhibit cell-intrinsic cell-to-cell variability, which influences cell fitness and size home-ostasis from bacteria to cancer. Whether this variability arises from noise in cell growth or cell division processes, or originates from cell-size-dependent growth rates, remains unclear. To separate these potential sources of growth variability, single-cell growth rates need to be examined across different timescales. Here, we study cell-intrinsic size and growth regulation by tracking lymphocytic leukemia cell mass accumulation with high precision and minute-scale temporal resolution along long ancestral lineages. We first show that cell-size-dependent growth regulation and asymmetric division of cell size do not explain cell-to-cell growth variability. We then isolate growth fluctuations from overlapping cell-cycle-dependent growth using a Gaussian process regression analysis. We find that these growth fluctuations drive cell-to-cell growth variability within ancestral lineages despite being independent of cell divisions, cell cycle, and cell size. Overall, our results indicate that cell-intrinsic long-term patterns in cell growth are a byproduct of short-term growth fluctuations.