Abstract
SEVERAL proposals have been advanced to explain how cell cycle duration (and hence proliferation rates) is governed1–3. It is important to establish which (if any) of these models is correct as they imply differing biological mechanisms of cell-cycle control. The transition probability hypothesis divides the cell cycle into two phases A and B, the transition from A to B occurring at random3. As a consequence a graph of the logarithm of the percentage of undivided cells (αt) against time after mitosis (the α curve) shows two components since αt will be 100% for times up to the minimum cycle time TB (the duration of B phase) and decay exponentially thereafter. This model has been criticised on the grounds that other models of the cell cycle can generate similar α curves and on the basis of the α curve it is difficult to tell these models apart4. In what follows the exponential nature of the distribution of differences of sister cell cycle times (the β curve) is shown to be a unique property of cell cycle models containing an exponentially distributed phase.
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SHIELDS, R. Further evidence for a random transition in the cell cycle. Nature 273, 755–758 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/273755a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/273755a0
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