Cell division

• Mitosis


  A type of cell division which produces 2 daughter cells identical to the parent
• Cell cycle


  A series of stages a growing and dividing cell goes through
• Cell cycle


  1. Cell growth

  2. DNA synthesis - Chromosomes now double stranded

  3. Further growth + DNA checked for errors

  4. Mitosis

  5. Cytoplasm separates, two cells are formed
• Mitosis


  1. Cell begins to divide

  2. DNA replicates to form two copies of each Chromosome

  3. Nuclear membrane breaks down, Chromosomes line up across cell

  4. One set of chromosomes pulled to each end of cell + nucleus divides

  5. Cytoplasm and cell membranes divide to form two identical cells
• Mitosis is essential when an organism grows or needs to produce new cells to replace damaged ones
• New cells produced by mitosis must contain genetic information identical to the parent cells
• The length of different stages of the cell cycle can be estimated using a formula
• The formula is: length of time in phase = (number of cells at stage / total number of cells observed) x total length of a cell cycle
• cancer

  A disease cause by uncontrollable cell division