Guiding Questions
The Key Roles of Cell Division
- Explain how cell division functions in reproduction, growth, and repair.
- Describe the structural organization of a prokaryotic and a eukaryotic genome.
- Describe the major events of cell division that enable the genome of one cell to be passed on to two daughter cells.
- Describe how chromosome number changes throughout the human life cycle.
The Mitotic Cell Cycle
- List the phases of the cell cycle and describe the sequence of events that occurs during each phase.
- List the phases of mitosis and describe the events characteristic of each phase.
- Recognize the phases of mitosis from diagrams and micrographs.
- Draw or describe the spindle apparatus, including centrosomes, kinetochore microtubules, nonkinetochore microtubules, asters, and centrioles (in animal cells).
- Describe what characteristic changes occur in the spindle apparatus during each phase of mitosis.
- Explain the current models for poleward chromosomal movement and elongation of the cell’s polar axis.
- Compare cytokinesis in animals and in plants.
- Describe the process of binary fission in bacteria and explain how eukaryotic mitosis may have evolved from binary fission.
Regulation of the Cell Cycle
- Describe the roles of checkpoints, cyclin, Cdk, and MPF in the cell cycle control system.
- Describe the internal and external factors that influence the cell cycle control system.
- Explain how the abnormal cell division of cancerous cells escapes normal cell cycle controls.
- Distinguish among benign, malignant, and metastatic tumors.
