Cell Division in Prokaryotic Cells

• How does cell division in prokaryotic cells take place?

  By binary fission.
• What is the first stage of binary fission?

  The circular DNA molecule and plasmids replicate and both circular DNA copies attach to opposite sides of the cell membrane.
• What happens to the cell membrane after the circular DNA molecules attach to it?

  It begins to grow between the two DNA molecules and pinch inwards, dividing the cytoplasm into two.
• What happens in the last stage of binary fission?

  A new cell wall forms between the two molecules of DNA, dividing the original cell into two daughter cells.
• What does each daughter cell contain at the end of binary fission?

  A single copy of the circular DNA and a variable number of copies of plasmids.
• Why don't viruses undergo cell division?


  As they are non-living.
• How do viruses replicate?

  By attaching to their host cell with their attachment proteins and injecting in their nucleic acids.
• What does the injected nucleic acid do to a host cell?

  It provides the instructions for the host cell's metabolic processes to start producing viral components for them to be assembled into new viruses.
• What are some viral components?

  Nucleic acids, enzymes, and structural proteins.
• What environmental factors increase the growth rate of a bacterium cell and why?

  Increased temperature - as increased enzyme activity, increased glucose - as increased respiration, and increased nucleotides - as increased DNA synthesis.