The Cell Cycle

 

1. What is mitosis and what is the the purpose of mitotic cell division?
2. Describe cell division in prokaryotes.
3. What is a somatic cell?
4. What are diploid, haploid and polyploid?  How does the ploidy of gametes differ from that of the somatic cells from which they are derived?
5. What is the function of DNA (at the molecular level)?  What is a chromosome?  Describe it and label it's parts.  How is the DNA of the chromosome organized during each of the stages of the cell cycle?  (i.e. How are chromosomes different/similar during each stage?)
6. What is an allele?  Compare an allele on one chromatid of a chromosome with the allele on the other chromatid of the same chromosome.  How would they be different/similar?  Compare alleles for a given gene on separate homologous chromosomes.
7. What are the stages of the cell cycle?  In general, what occurs during each of the three stages of interphase?
8. What factors determine how a cell will proceed through its cell cycle?
9. Describe a cell in interphase.  Describe a cell in each of the 4 stages of mitosis.
10. What is the mitotic spindle?  Describe in general its structure and function.  What is the difference between a kinetochore and nonkinetochore microtubules?
11. Compare and contrast cytokinesis between animals and plants.
12. What is cancer, and how is it related to problems with cell division?  Describe the difference between a benign tumor and a malignant tumor.  What is metastasis?