Friday, January 7, 2011

Cell Cycle and Mitosis

The first thing that i learned is that mitosis is divided into different steps. It starts out in prophase, then goes into metaphase, then Anaphase, and Telophase is right after that. Prophase is the phase when the spindle fibers come out. Metaphase is the phase that the spindle fibers fully come out and prepare to pull the chromosomes apart. Anaphase is when the spindles actually go and attach and start to pull apart the the chromosome for the chromotids. Once anaphase is over each spindle has a set of chromotids. Then in the last step, telophase, the chromotids are put into new nuclei, which causes the formation of the two new daughter cells. Another thing that i learned is that in the cell cycle, if you start with mitosis the new cells go into the G1 phase, where they check and make copies of parts that it needs. Then it doubles the amount of chromatids making new chromosomes in the S phase. Then it goes into G2 phase which is when it prepares for mitosis before going into mitosis, making new daughter cells, and starting the whole cycle over again. From this lab I've gotten a lot better at identifying what part of mitosis a cell is in and what is happening that makes it look how it does. When we first started I was having a little bit of trouble determining what phase, but after a little practice I got a lot better at it. I would still like to learn more about the cell cycle though. I feel like I know the basics of it but still have a lot more that I need to learn about it. Now that I understand Mitosis I want to learn more about Meiosis and how that works and goes into the cell cycle.