Before revision:  To test the model, we perform experiments with E. coli strains mutant for recA, sulA and slmA, factors known to affect replication fork dynamics and coupling to cell division. Our validated model of RFstalling based cell division, can reproduce the variability in cell size distribution seen in these mutant strains, and provides a predictive tool to further examine stochastic effects in bacterial cell size regulation .
After revision:  To test the model, we perform experiments with E. coli predicts an increase in cell size variability with growth rate, consistent with previous experimental reports. We perturb the model to test the effect of increased replication fork (RF) stalling frequency, or uncoupling RF stalling from the cell-division machinery. Indeed, despite ignoring DNA and protein segregation asymmetry, the model can faithfully reproduce quantitative changes in cell size distribution seen in these mutant strains, and provides a predictive tool to further examine stochastic effects in bacterial cell size regulation .