Cell reproduction Lab Report

Name
Institution
Professor
Date
Cell reproduction
Every living being began as a single cell. The cell began as one and then divided, and multiplied to form the living being. The cell is the basic functional, structural and biological unit of all living organisms. They (cells) are the smallest units of life in the classification of living things. The cells consist of protoplasm that is enclosed within a membrane. Cells are too tiny to be seen with the naked eye. To understand cell division and its phases, one needs a microscope. There are basically two kinds of cell division: meiosis and mitosis. The latter is basically a process of duplication. The process of mitosis produces two identical cells from the same single parent cell. Mitosis is a continuous process taking place in all parts of our bodies. It is through the process of mitosis that worn out cells through tear and wear is replaced. The process of meiosis on the other hand produces daughter cells that are distinct from one another: cells that end up as eggs in females and as sperms in males, making meiosis division for sexual reproduction unlike mitosis which is division for growth CITATION Car09 \l 1033 (Ballard, 2009). The process of mitosis has four distinct and clearly recognizable phases. Prophase is the first phase where the nucleolus and nuclear membranes disappear. Chromatin coils and form visible chromosomes with a threadlike spindle forming between the pairs of centrioles. In the next phase (metaphase), sister chromatids line up around the center of the cell. Through its centromere, each sister chromatid is attached to a separate spindle fiber. During anaphase, the third phase, each centromere divides with the sister chromatids separating. Chromatids start moving away from each, and each chromatid becoming a separate chromosome. During the fourth phase, telophase, centrioles and spindle fibers start disappearing. Chromosomes become hard to see ad nuclear membran...