Random transitions and cell cycle control

Differences between the cycle times of sister cells are exponentially distributed, which means that these differences can be explained entirely by the existence of a single critical step in the cell cycle which occurs at random. Cycle times as a whole are not exponentially distributed, indicating an additional source of variation in the cell cycle. It follows that this additional variation must affect sister cells identically; ie, sister cell cycle times are correlated. This correlation and the overall distribution of cycle times can be predicted quantitatively by a model that was developed initially in order to explain certain problematic features of the response of quiescent cells to mitogenic stimulation - in particular, the significance of the lag that almost invariably occurs between stimulation and the onset of DNA synthesis. This model proposes that each cell cycle depends not on one but two random transitions, one of which (at reasonably high growth rates) occurs in the mother cell, its effects being inherited equally by the two daughter cells. The fundamental timing element in the cell cycle is proposed to be a lengthy process, called L, which accounts for most of the lag on mitogenic stimulation and also for the minimum cycle time in growing cultures. One of the random transitions is concerned with the initiation of L, whereas the other becomes possible on completion of L. The latter transition has two consequences: the first is the initiation of a sequence of events which includes S, G2 and M; the second is the restoration of the state from which L may be initiated once more. As a result, L may begin (at random) at any stage of the conventional cycle, ie, S, G2, M, or G1. There are marked similarities between the hypothetical process L and the biogenesis of mitotic centres - the structures responsible for organising the spindle poles.