Essay/Term paper: Cell division

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Medicine

Cell Division

Why must cells divide? To start it off, cells can"t keep growing forever, so when they reach a certain size they will have to divide. Cells divide for four important reasons; reproduction, growth, repair, and replacement of damaged or worn out cells. Most cells divide at least once during their life cycle and some divide divide dozens of time times before they die. There are three types of cell division. They are binary fission, mitosis, and meiosis. When cell division is in the form of mitosis it is usually associated with cell growth, replacement, and repair. When the cell goes through meisosis it usually involves asexual reproduction. Both the process of mitosis and meiosis involve the duplication of the DNA and the splitting of the nucleus.
Mitosis is a type of cell division that produces two genteically identical cells from a single cell. Mitosis is basically a process that cells goes through to to form two new nuclei, with each nuclei containing the same number of chromosomes. Mitosis is used by many unicellular eukaryotic organisms for reproduction. Multicellular organisms use mitosis for growth, repair, and the cell replacement. An example of a multicelluar organism using mitosis for cell replacement is in the human body, the human body have about twenty-five million mitotic cell divisions occur every second to replace the cells that have finished their life cycles. There are five phases in the mitosis process. The phases are interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.
In every living things there are cells. But each living thing only begin life with one cell. The single cell soons begin to take in materials it needs to grow. While the cell is taking in the important materials it is also growing. When the cell is dividing, multiplying, and building it is going through growth. The cell continues with the process of multiplying, dividing, and building until it is fully developed. As the cell grow it changes in its form and what it does. The cells may have different functions. For example some cells may grow into tissues that form the skin while other cells grow in to muscle tissues. Other cells may go on to form body organs such as the heart and lungs. The growth between one-celled organisms and mulitcellular organisms can be different. In One-celled organisms, cell division is the most common form of reproduction. In muliticellular organisms dividing cells can remain assemble in a lot of ways.