Regulated Inactivation of the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint without Mitotic Spindles

Thank you for submitting your manuscript for consideration by The EMBO Journal. It has now been evaluated by three referees, whose reports are copied below. Although these reviewers point to the somewhat descriptive nature of the study, they nevertheless consider the main novel observation of apparently autonomous spindle checkpoint inactivation during prolonged mitotic arrest in Aspergillus potentially important and thus in principle suited for publication in The EMBO Journal. However, all of them also feel that the study would constitute a much more compelling publication if at least some additional insight into the underlying mechanism could be provided e.g. by identifying proteins whose required synthesis may underlie the cycloheximide effects, or by additionally testing the requirements for protein degradation e.g. by APC/C and additional APC/C substrates. In this respect, in a follow-up communication referee 1 also offered the additional suggestion to look at potential involvement of NIMA, as its APC/C-independent destruction is also required for mitotic exit and as the normal microtubule binding of NIMA would be perturbed in your experimental setup (it might therefore be worth to also look if microtubule-stabilizing drugs would have similar effects or not).