Effects of asymmetric division on a stochastic model of the cell division cycle.

The stochastic model of cell division formulated by Alt and Tyson is generalized to the case of imprecise binary fission. Closed-form expressions are derived for the generation-time distribution, the birth-size and division-size distributions, the beta curve, and the correlation coefficient of generation times of sister cells. The theoretical results are compared to observations of cell division statistics in a culture of fission yeast.