Subject: cell size

From: [email-masked] (Gavin/Kim Harrison)
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 10:22:32 -0700

I have recently received mail on a question I posted earlier this week
about surface area/ volume ratios.  The letter I received stated that
bacterial cells have the highest surface area/volume ratio.  Is this
true?  The project I am currently working on deals with the efficiency of
cells depending on their surface area or volume.  Are cells more efficient
if their S/V ratio is greater?  Is there an ideal S/V ratio?  Your help is
appreciated.

Sincerley

Kim Harrison

---

From: martin adler <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 07:53:57 +0200

On Wed, 24 Apr 1996, Gavin/Kim Harrison wrote:

> true?  

if the shape is the same, the smaller the particle, the higher the
surface/volume area. its just mathematics, you can try it with cubes
or spheres.

     The project I am currently working on deals with the efficiency of
> if their S/V ratio is greater?  Is there an ideal S/V ratio?  Your help is

efficient in what? ideal what for?

cheers,

martin adler

---

From: [email-masked] ("K N and P J Harris")
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 13:57:40 GMT

> ==========
> bionet/plants #1158, from [email-masked], 1606 
chars, Thu  25 Apr 1996 07:53:57 +0
> ----------
> Article: 9679 of bionet.plants
> Path: 
cix.compulink.co.uk!news.compulink.co.uk!btnet!news.easynet.co.uk!peer.n
ews.xara.net!xara.net!news.cais.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!swrinde!sgi
gate.sgi.com!nntp.coast.net!swidir.switch.ch!scsing
> .switch.ch!news.belwue.de!newsserv.zdv.uni-tuebinge
> n.de!commlink.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de!kapib01
> From: martin adler <[email-masked]>
> Newsgroups: bionet.plants
> Subject: Re: cell size
> Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 07:53:57 +0200
> Organization: InterNetNews at ZDV Uni-Tuebingen
> Lines: 24
> Message-ID: 
<[email-masked]>
> References: 
<[email-masked]>
> NNTP-Posting-Host: commlink.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> In-Reply-To: 
<[email-masked]> 
> efficient in what? ideal what for?
For anything approaching a self-contained cell capable of independent 
existence - yes I reckon the bacteria have it for greatest surface to 
volume ratio. But and it may be a big BUT - they may not be the most 
efficient.
They are very good at spreading their adsorptive surface around within 
an environment - therefore they have a better chance than most at 
intercepting any goodies around. But (again a big BUT) if you have a 
very high surface to volume ratio you must also spend a great deal of 
effort in keeping your "insides" the way you want them. In other words 
you will lose efficiency because you are so small and so much at the 
mercy of external changes.

Like most things "it's a trade off". Fungi seem to be much more 
"efficient" in terms of carbon assimilation than bacteria (rough figures 
10 to 30 percent for fungi compared with 2 to 8 percent for bacteria) 
but the bacteria are still hanging in there.

You can carry this argument on into predators and up through the whole 
biological chain. Not room here though.
Good luck.

Peter Harris,
Department of Soil Science
(Microbial Ecologist and Iconoclast)
University of Reading,
UK.