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28 Nov 2019

The result of mitosis is that the daughter cells end up with thesame number of chromosomes that the parent cell had. Imagine anorganism has 4 chromosomes total (let's call them chromosomesA,B,C,D). During cell division, each chromosome gets duplicated andthen divided resulting in two daughter cells with 4 chromosomeseach. Another way to accomplish this would be to divide into 2daughter cells first and then duplicate each chromosome and havethe sister chromatids separate. This would also give a resulting 4total chromosomes. Do you think this would be an equally good wayof organizing the cell cyle? Why do you suppose that evolution hasnot led to this alternative? Select the statement below that BESTexplains your answer.

-This is a good way to organize the cell cycle as long ascytokinesis doesn't happen. This method already happnes in fruitflies. The cell can save energy and time by dividing geneticmaterial first and then copying it later. Evolution has not led tothis alternative because it can only happen in specificorganisms.

-By dividing first and then duplicating, the two resultingdaughter cells would not be identical. The replication that occursafter division will be error-prone and generate too many mutations.This would not be advantageous for organisms and would likely beselected against during evolution.

-This is not a good way of organizing the cell cycle. The numberof chromosomes will remain the same but the chromosomes would bevery different from the ABCD parent cell and from each other. Therole of mitosis is to generate identical daughter cells.Chromosomes carry the genetic information required for all thecells functions. If a daughter cell was missing half of its geneticinformation it is likely it would not be able to perform allfunctions required for survival.

-By dividing first and then duplicating, the two resultingdaughter cells would not be identical. For example, one daughtercell could get chromosomes A and B and the other C and D. After theduplication event each daughter cell would have four chromosomesbut one would have AABB and the other would have CCDD.

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Hubert Koch
Hubert KochLv2
3 Jan 2019
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