Why Cells are Microscopic: A Transport-Time Perspective

Abstract

Physical chemical reasoning is used to demonstrate that the sizes of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells are such that they minimize the times needed for the macromolecules to migrate throughout the cells and interact/react with one another. This conclusion does not depend on a particular form of the crowded-medium diffusion model, as thus points toward a potential optimization principle of cellular organisms. In eukaryotes, size optimality renders the diffusive transport as efficient as active transport in this way, the cells can conserve energetic resources that would otherwise be expended in active transport.