AP Biology Lab

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Observing mitosis of prepared Whitefish Blastula cell slides and Calculating the time (in minutes) that each stage of Mitosis undergoes in Onion root tip prepared cell slides Cell division is an integral part of the cell cycle in all plants, organisms and all living things in general. Passing genetic information from parent cells to offspring allows plants and organisms to grow and growth is vital to life. In both plants and animals the process involves the distribution of genetic material to daughter cells. The process of cell division involves two different types: mitosis and meiosis. Simply stated, Mitosis divides the nucleus of a cell to produce these two daughter cells and consists of five stages. The stages in an animal cell include Prophase- chromatin is condensing and the mitotic spindle begins to form, but the nucleus is still intact, Metaphase- spindle is complete and the chromosomes are all aligned at the metaphase plate, Anaphase- the chromatids of each chromosome have separated and the daughter chromosomes are moving back to the poles of the cell, Telophase- daughter nuclei are forming and Cytokinesis has begun. In plants, this process is quite the same except for Cytokinesis. Instead, while in Telophase, vesicles from the Golgi apparatus move along microtubules to the middle of the cell, producing a cell plate. Cell wall materials are carried in the vesicles that make up the cell plate and then are released, and actually form two cell walls. (Campbell pg. 223) Meiosis is a process that is similar to mitosis and even has a few of the same processes as mitosis does. Meiosis has the stages of Prophase, metaphase, anaphase, Telophase and Cytokinesis but these processes happen twice. Meiosis I separates homologous chromosomes and meiosis II separates sister chromatids. Meiosis is different from Mitosis in a few procedures that happen during the

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