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The preparation of a cell for division includes synthetic and structural activities. Both DNA replication and the doubling of the cell's dry mass are well-recognized prerequisites for a division that will endow the daughter cells with the genes, enzymes, and structures that are essential for future healthy growth. Likewise, the cell must rearrange its structure so that the organization of both its cytoplasm and its nucleus are passed on to the next generation. The completion of certain of these tasks appears to be monitored by the cell and to be used to determine the time after which it is adaptively valuable to progress to the next stage in the cell cycle. This paper provides a brief overview of the structural changes that accompany the preparation for division and the return to interphase. A hypothesis is then presented for the mechanism by which a cell decides when to begin anaphase and...
J. Richard McIntosh (Tue,) studied this question.