How is a cell's size related to its need for nutrients?
Cell being the basic unit of life demands continuous supply of energy to perform the vital roles of organism's body. However, the size of a cell donot remains same throughout its lifetime.
When the cell grows, it increases in size but decreases in relative ratio of surface area. The increase in size is linked with the formulation of more sub-cellular structures as well as exchange of material from inside of the cell to the outside environment.
Therefore, the larger size of cell demands an increased nutrient supply to fulfill the energy requirements of more number of structures and functional processes.
How does this relationship make larger cells harder to maintain?
As we said that When the cell grows, it increases in size but decreases in relative ratio of surface area. However, the less surface area pose a constraint to the efficient exchange of materials from inside and outside the cell.
Therefore, the surface area of a cell should be enough large that can allow the efficient exchange of material with outside surrounding.So when the cell is smaller in size, it is easier for it to perform the exchange of materials more efficiently because its surface area to volume ratio is high and allowing it to perform better diffusion of substances. Therefore, it is relatively harder for a large cell to efficiently maintain itself and get enough nutrients to keep it better functioning even in larger size. This is the reason why cells divide more rapidly than growing in size because they want to overcome the mentioned constraint.
Hope it help!
