CELL DIVISION = CELL REPRODUCTION

Week 3 – 1st Quarter

Cell Division is also called Cell Reproduction

• This is linked to the cell theory
• No cell exists today if not because of a previous parent cell.

Cell division

• allows organisms to reproduce asexually, grow, and repair worn-out or damaged tissues (cell
replacement)

Cells follow definite stages of growth, duplication, and division known collectively as the cell cycle.
The different eukaryotic cells in the body also differ in terms of their cell division rate, which is
dependent on how the body needs them

Cells that rarely divide are believed by scientists to have entered a stage known as gap zero.
• They still continue to perform normal functions
• Cells like neurons and heart muscle cells are highly specialized and differentiated that the
body cannot easily replace them -> said to be permanently in the G0

Cancer
• a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled and abnormal cell division
Tumor
• cancerous cells divide continuously until a disorganized solid mass of cells is formed.
Benign tumors
• cancer cells that remain clustered together, which may be harmless or not.
Malignant tumors
• tumors that metastasize.

Meiosis
• is used for just one purpose in the human body: the production of gametes—sex cells, or
sperm and eggs. Its goal is to make daughter cells with exactly half as many chromosomes as
the starting cell.
• In humans, the haploid cells made in meiosis are sperm and eggs. When a sperm and an egg
join in fertilization, the two haploid sets of chromosomes form a complete diploid set: a new
genome.
Synapsis
• Early in prophase I, homologous chromosomes come together to form a
synapse. The chromosomes are bound tightly together and in perfect
alignment by a protein lattice called a synaptonemal complex and by
cohesion proteins at the centromere
• Compared to mitosis, which can take place in a matter of minutes, meiosis is a slow process,
largely because of the time that the cell spends in prophase I. During prophase I, the pairs of
homologous chromosomes come together to form a tetrad or bivalent, which contains four
chromatids. Recombination can occur between any two chromatids within this tetrad
structure.
• Crossovers between homologous chromatids can be visualized in structures known as
chiasmata, which appear late in prophase I. Chiasmata are essential for accurate meiosis. In
fact, cells that fail to form chiasmata may not be able to segregate their chromosomes
properly during anaphase, thereby producing aneuploid gametes with abnormal numbers of
chromosomes (Hassold & Hunt, 2001).
• At the end of prometaphase I, meiotic cells enter metaphase I. Here, in sharp contrast to
mitosis, pairs of homologous chromosomes line up opposite each other on the metaphase
plate, with the kinetochores on sister chromatids facing the same pole.
• Pairs of sex chromosomes also align on the metaphase plate. In human males, the Y
chromosome pairs and crosses over with the X chromosome. These crossovers are possible
because the X and Y chromosomes have small regions of similarity near their tips. Crossover
 between these homologous regions ensures that the sex chromosomes will segregate
properly when the cell divides.
• Next, during anaphase I, the pairs of homologous chromosomes separate to different
daughter cells. Before the pairs can separate, however, the crossovers between
chromosomes must be resolved and meiosis-specific cohesins must be released from the
arms of the sister chromatids.

Meiosis 2
Following meiosis I, the daughter cells enter meiosis II without passing through interphase or
replicating their DNA. Meiosis II resembles a mitotic division, except that the chromosome number has
been reduced by half. Thus, the products of meiosis II are four haploid cells that contain a single copy
of each chromosome.
In mammals, the number of viable gametes obtained from meiosis differs between males and
females. In males, four haploid spermatids of similar size are produced from each spermatogonium. In
females, however, the cytoplasmic divisions that occur during meiosis are very asymmetric. Fully
grown oocytes within the ovary are already much larger than sperm, and the future egg retains most
of this volume as it passes through meiosis. As a consequence, only one functional oocyte is obtained
from each female meiosis. The other three haploid cells are pinched off from the oocyte as polar
bodies that contain very little cytoplasm.
The events of Meiosis II are analogous to those of a mitotic division, although the number of
chromosomes involved has been halved.
Meiosis generates genetic diversity through:
• the exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes during Meiosis I
• the random alignment of maternal and paternal chromosomes in Meiosis I
• the random alignment of the sister chromatids at Meiosis II