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Referee comments: Referee 1

Posted by PLOS_ONE_Group on 25 Jan 2008 at 13:49 GMT

Referee 1's review:

This paper is essentially identical to work we recently published in a much more extensive account (Habel and Sontheimer, Cell Cycle 6:1613-20). There is nothing new.

This paper confirms our recently published findings that cytoplasmic volume decreases prior to M-phase. While we used primarily human gliomas and human embryonic kidney cells this study explored this phenomenon in monkey kidney dericed cell line. Hence these findings are likely applicable more generally to most mamallian cells.

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N.B. These are the comments made by the referee when reviewing an earlier version of this paper. Prior to publication the manuscript has been revised in light of these comments and to address other editorial requirements.

RE: Referee comments: Referee 1

Emmanuel_Boucrot replied to PLOS_ONE_Group on 30 Jan 2008 at 12:51 GMT

Habela and Sontheimer have discovered that cytoplasmic volume decreases prior to M-phase. Here using a different method we found cytoplasmic volume variations within M-phase. This short paper complements their nice work.
M-phase (or mitosis) includes several distinct phases: prophase, pro-metaphase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase and cytokinesis. Cytoplasmic volume decreases further during the first part of M-phase, reaching a minimum at metaphase. Then cells recovers volume rapidly during the transition from anaphase to cytokinesis.