Fig. 1: Cell division according to two rules.
a Cell growing and dividing to form a filament. b As (a) but shown as a continuum, with a snapshot of cells in their final state at the bottom. c, d Effect of reducing growth rate. If cells divide with a fixed cycle duration (c), cell size decreases with time and final cell number remains unchanged. If a cell divides at a fixed threshold size (d), cell cycle duration increases and final cell number decreases. e Growth-dependent timing with random displacement of division wall respect to the middle of the cell in the range \(\pm\)7.5%. Such random displacement desynchronizes divisions and produces cells at the end with diverse cell cycle phases (different colours) and sizes (though sizes remain within a factor of two of each other).
