Asymmetric inheritance of organelles and compounds between daughter cells is considered a hallmark for differentiation and rejuvenation in stem-like and cancer cells, as much as a mechanism for enhancing resistance in bacteria populations. In non-differentiating homogeneous cancer cells, asymmetric division is still poorly investigated. Here, we present a method based on the binomial partitioning process that allows the measurement of asymmetric organelle partitioning with multiple live cell markers without genetically mutating the cells. We demonstrate our method by measuring simultaneously the partitioning of three cellular elements, i.e., cytoplasm, membrane, and mitochondria in human Jurkat T-cells. We found that although cell cytoplasm is partitioned symmetrically, mitochondria and membrane lipids are asymmetrically partitioned between daughter cells. Moreover, we observe that mitochondria and membrane lipids present a stable positive correlation with cytoplasm, incompatibly with a binomial partition mechanism produced by two independent partitioning processes. Our experimental apparatus, combined with our theoretical framework, could be generalized to different cell kinds, providing a tool for understanding partitioning-driven biological processes.

子细胞之间细胞器和化合物的不对称遗传被认为是干细胞样细胞和癌细胞分化和恢复活力的标志，也是增强细菌群体抵抗力的机制。在非分化的同质癌细胞中，对不对称分裂的研究仍然很少。在这里，我们提出了一种基于二项式分区过程的方法，该方法允许测量具有多个活细胞标记的不对称细胞器分区，而不会对细胞进行基因突变。我们通过同时测量三种细胞成分（即人类 Jurkat T 细胞中的细胞质、膜和线粒体）的分配来证明我们的方法。我们发现虽然细胞质是对称分配的，线粒体和膜脂在子细胞之间不对称分布。此外，我们观察到线粒体和膜脂与细胞质呈稳定的正相关，与由两个独立分配过程产生的二项式分配机制不相容。我们的实验装置与我们的理论框架相结合，可以推广到不同的细胞种类，为理解分区驱动的生物过程提供了一种工具。