It is shown that cyclic nucleotides can have a variety of effects on cell division, cell shape, cell adhesion, and cell movement, depending on the cells selected and the conditions under which they are used. For example, while CHO cells elongate under the influence of exogenous dibutyryl CAMP, Y-1 adrenal tumor cells round up and polyoma-transformed 3T3 cells show no change in shape. The totality of experience with cyclic nucleotides suggests that where they have been used by cells as control elements involving the four processes listed above, they are superimposed on basic cellular processes that progress in their absence--that is, they must be acting indirectly. In attempting to understand the inhibitory action of methyl xanthines on egg development, we were forced to abandon the idea that they acted through cyclic nucleotides. We found that methyl xanthines inhibited the activation of glutathione reductase and that glutathione oxidizing agents act as mitotic inhibitors. Further, we found that tubulin polymerizability, NAD-kinase activity, and a mitotic apparatus associated Ca+2-ATP-ase were all inhibited by oxidation of some of their sulfhydryls and were activated by reduction of the resulting disulfides. These results are discussed in terms of reported cycles and activations of glutathione reductase (GR) in cells and reports that mixed disulfides of glutathione and proteins can act as substrates for GR. Using the fact that a CAMP-dependent protein kinase has been reported to be activated by glutathione, we have suggested potential sites where sulfhydryl control processes and cyclic nucleotide control processes and cyclic nucleotide control processes may interact in certain restricted cases.