Abstract
“Opinion” is an excellent platform to discuss several unsettled fields in diatom research, and the following comments may be taken into consideration by those interested in the research on the complete cell wall and in the cytoplasm of a diatom. The purpose is to clarify some issues raised in Dr Medlin's article from 2004 (Diatom Research 19, 345–351), which cannot be left uncommented, because of the fact that students not firm in cell biology might expect that Dr Medlin's standpoints would express the general opinion. For better understanding of this issue, the reader is referred to the # comments of Medlin (2004).