Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Mitosis
Summary
In cell biology, mitosis (maɪˈtoʊsɪs) is a part of the cell cycle in which replicated chromosomes are separated into two new nuclei. Cell division by mitosis gives rise to genetically identical cells in which the total number of chromosomes is maintained. Therefore, mitosis is also known as equational division. In general, mitosis is preceded by S phase of interphase (during which DNA replication occurs) and is often followed by telophase and cytokinesis; which divides the cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane of one cell into two new cells containing roughly equal shares of these cellular components. The different stages of mitosis altogether define the mitotic (M) phase of a cell cycle—the division of the mother cell into two daughter cells genetically identical to each other.
The process of mitosis is divided into stages corresponding to the completion of one set of activities and the start of the next. These stages are preprophase (specific to plant cells), prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. During mitosis, the chromosomes, which have already duplicated, condense and attach to spindle fibers that pull one copy of each chromosome to opposite sides of the cell. The result is two genetically identical daughter nuclei. The rest of the cell may then continue to divide by cytokinesis to produce two daughter cells. The different phases of mitosis can be visualized in real time, using live cell imaging. Producing three or more daughter cells instead of the normal two is a mitotic error called tripolar mitosis or multipolar mitosis (direct cell triplication / multiplication). Other errors during mitosis can induce mitotic catastrophe, apoptosis (programmed cell death) or cause mutations. Certain types of cancer can arise from such mutations.
Mitosis occurs only in eukaryotic cells. Prokaryotic cells, which lack a nucleus, divide by a different process called binary fission. Mitosis varies between organisms.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (11)
BIO-714: Mechanisms of cell motility
Mechanisms of cell motility
BIO-105: Cellular biology and biochemistry for engineers
Basic course in biochemistry as well as cellular and molecular biology for non-life science students enrolling at the Master or PhD thesis level from various engineering disciplines. It reviews essent
BIO-221: Cell and developmental biology for engineers
Students will learn essentials of cell and developmental biology with an engineering mind set, with an emphasis on animal model systems and quantitative approaches.
Related lectures (35)
Cell Division and Organelle Staining
Covers cell division phases, organelle staining, and immune cell interactions.
DNA Structure and Function
Explores DNA structure, histone interactions, polymerase function, nucleosome organization, chromatin compaction, cell cycle phases, FISH analysis, and telomere structure.
Meiosis: Chromosome Division and Genetic Shuffling
Explores meiosis, focusing on chromosome division, genetic shuffling, and consequences of errors.
Related publications (181)
Single-mitosis dissection of acute and chronic DNA mutagenesis and repair
How chronic mutational processes and punctuated bursts of DNA damage drive evolution of the cancer genome is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate a strategy to disentangle and quantify distinct mechanisms underlying genome evolution in single cells, dur ...
Nature Portfolio2024A Cluster of Evolutionarily Recent KRAB Zinc Finger Proteins Protects Cancer Cells from Replicative Stress–Induced Inflammation
Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Evaristo Jose Planet Letschert, Filipe Amândio Brandão Sanches Vong Martins, Florian Huber, Olga Marie Louise Rosspopoff, Romain Forey, Sandra Eloise Kjeldsen, Cyril David Son-Tuyên Pulver, Joana Carlevaro Fita
Heterochromatin loss and genetic instability enhance cancer progression by favoring clonal diversity, yet uncontrolled replicative stress leads to mitotic catastrophe and inflammatory responses that promote immune rejection. KRAB domain-containing zinc fin ...
2024Inheritance of H3K9 methylation regulates genome architecture in Drosophila early embryos
Constitutive heterochromatin is essential for transcriptional silencing and genome integrity. The establishment of constitutive heterochromatin in early embryos and its role in early fruitfly development are unknown. Lysine 9 trimethylation of histone H3 ( ...
Springernature2024Related people (37)
Related concepts (40)
Meiosis
Meiosis (maɪˈoʊsɪs; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately result in four cells with only one copy of each chromosome (haploid). Additionally, prior to the division, genetic material from the paternal and maternal copies of each chromosome is crossed over, creating new combinations of code on each chromosome.
Cell division
Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two daughter cells. Cell division usually occurs as part of a larger cell cycle in which the cell grows and replicates its chromosome(s) before dividing. In eukaryotes, there are two distinct types of cell division: a vegetative division (mitosis), producing daughter cells genetically identical to the parent cell, and a cell division that produces haploid gametes for sexual reproduction (meiosis), reducing the number of chromosomes from two of each type in the diploid parent cell to one of each type in the daughter cells.
Cell cycle
The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the series of events that take place in a cell that causes it to divide into two daughter cells. These events include the duplication of its DNA (DNA replication) and some of its organelles, and subsequently the partitioning of its cytoplasm, chromosomes and other components into two daughter cells in a process called cell division. In cells with nuclei (eukaryotes, i.e., animal, plant, fungal, and protist cells), the cell cycle is divided into two main stages: interphase and the mitotic (M) phase (including mitosis and cytokinesis).