What is Cell Division?

A good question..                                                                                  

It is common observation that living things grow and increase in size. It is also observed and proved that the offspring resemble their parents. We have learnt that all living things are made up of cells. Hence, more and more cells are needed for growth and development of a living thing. But where do cells come from? The answer to the question is that the new cells are produced by the divisions of pre-existing cells. And in today’s post I am going to discuss about the process of cell division. 

Cell division is the process when a cell divides to form new cells. The cell which divides is called the parent cell and the cells which are formed as the result are called the daughter cells. Before the cell division the cell passes through a phase called interphase. During interphase, the chromosomes present in the nucleus duplicated, i.e. copies of all the chromosomes are formed.

After interphase there are two more processes, the nuclear division and Cytokinesis. Nuclear division is the division of the nucleus of the cell which is followed by Cytokinesis. Cytokinesis is the division of the cytoplasm.

The cell division further divides into two types, Mitosis and Meiosis.

Mitosis is the process in which a parent cell divides to form two daughter cells with the same number of chromosomes as in the parent cell. The chromosomes are duplicated during interphase. Two sets of chromosomes are formed. During Mitosis when the nucleus of the cell divides the two set of chromosomes are distributed among the daughter nuclei.

After nuclear division a shallow groove arises in the middle of the cytoplasm which deepens further and divides the cell into daughter cells, each having a nucleus.

Meiosis is the process by which a cell divides in such a way that the parent cell divides into four daughter cells and the number of chromosomes in each daughter cell is reduced to half as compared to the parent cell.

The process of meiosis comprises to two more divisions, the meiotic 1 division and the meiotic 2 division. During meiotic 1 division, the number of chromosomes is reduced to half (as compared to the parent cell). Meiotic-2 division is similar to mitosis because the half number of chromosomes is retained in the four daughter cells.

The Up Coming Topics:

• ·         Why do offspring resemble characteristics from their parents?.
• ·         What are chromosomes, DNA and genes?
• ·         Internal Structure of DNA.
• ·         Sections of DNA (genes).
• ·         Heritable & Non-heritable Characters.

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