Until a few years ago, we knew very little about interphase. In fact, in
one classic book on histology,[8] while a description of mitosis
required almost 12 pages, interphase was dismissed in less than six
lines! The reason for this lack of interest was, of course, the fact
that no adequate methods were available for studying metabolic
activities of cells in interphase. The methods of high-resolution
autoradiography and radiochemical analysis of synchronized cell
populations have become available only in the past few years.
We now know that metabolic activities during interphase are of primary
importance in understanding the mechanism of cell division. It is, in
fact, the orderly sequence of metabolic events occurring in interphase
that leads from one mitosis to the next.