Chapter 10, Problem 18STP

Summary Introduction

To assess:

Occurrences if mitosis were not an extremely precise process.

Introduction:

A cell grows until it reaches its size limit, then it either stops growing or divides. Most cells undergo division. Cell division helps a cell to reproduce and makes the organism grow and heal certain injuries. Cells reproduce by a cycle of growing and dividing called the cell cycle. There are three main stages of a cell cycle; interphase, mitosis and cytokinesis.

Answer to Problem 18STP

If mitosis were not a precise process, it would cause many irregularities in the cell division. The genetic material might not be distributed evenly in the daughter cells and this would make new cells non identical. Abnormal mitosis would not produce cells with specific functions. Cancer can occur due to abnormal mitosis.

Explanation of Solution

Mitosis is the second stage in a cell cycle in which cell’s nucleus and nuclear material divides. In this stage the cell’s replicated genetic material separates and the cell prepares to split into two cells. The key activity of mitosis is the accurate separation of the cell’s replicated DNA. This enables the genetic information to pass into new cells intact resulting in two daughter cells that are genetically identical.

If mitosis were not a precise process, there would be lot of abnormalities in the way chromosomes get divided and would cause irregularities in distribution of genetic materials. Cancer would have been more prevalent and there would be more cell proliferation. Cells would be less specific in their function.