BIOLOGY

UNIT 02 MUF 0032

PRACTICAL ACTIVITY: DNA – OBSERVING MITOSIS

Introduction:
The cell cycle is an ordered set of events that make up the life of a cell. The three main events of the cell cycle
are interphase, mitosis and cytokinesis.
During interphase, the cell performs its metabolic functions, grows, and replicates its organelles and
DNA. Interphase consists of three stages – gap 1 (G1), synthesis (S) and gap 2 (G2). When the cell is ready, it
enters into the mitotic phase (M) of the cell cycle, where the duplicated DNA is separated out in preparation
for the new daughter cells.
Mitosis consists of five phases – prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.
Cytokinesis occurs either during or immediately after telophase and is the physical separation of the cell, the
cytoplasm and the nuclei into two distinct daughter cells.
Mitosis and cytokinesis are easily observable in actively growing areas of a multicellular organism. Each
phase can be identified by a few key characteristics as summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: Key characteristics of the phases of mitosis and cytokinesis

PHASE KEY CHARACTERISTICS

Prophase and • Chromatin molecules coil and condense until they become visible chromosomes.
Prometaphase • The chromosomes are made up of two chromatids joined at the centromere.
• Nuclear envelope disintegrates and nucleoli disappear.
• Centrioles move to opposite poles of the cell and produce the spindle apparatus, which
extend and attach to chromosomes at the kinetochores.
Metaphase • The spindle apparatus moves the chromosomes to an imaginary line down the equator of
the cell, called the metaphase plate.
• Chromosomes line up single-file on the metaphase plate.
Anaphase • Centromere breaks down and sister chromatids are separated.
• One chromatid from each chromosome is pulled to opposite end of the cell as the spindle
apparatus retracts to the centrioles.
Telophase • The spindle apparatus breaks down, chromosomes start to unwind and the nuclear
membrane starts to reform.
• Cleavage furrow starts to form down the centre of the cell.
Cytokinesis • The cleavage furrow continues to contract until the daughter cells are completely
separated.
• In plant cells, a cell plate forms between the two daughter cells before cytokinesis fully
separates the cells. The cell plate becomes a part of the cell wall.

Aim:
To examine the root tip of an onion and to identify cells in the different phases of mitosis.

Materials and equipment (per group):

• A prepared slide of onion cells in different stages of of mitosis
• An onion with root and shoot
• A microscope

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 Procedure:
1. Examine the onion plant. Take a photograph of the plant. Identify the root and shoot systems of the plant.
2. Examine the photograph of the onion and its roots, and label the regions that will have actively dividing
cells.
3. Place the slide of onion cells on the microscope stage.
4. Examine the slide first under low then high power.
5. Search for differences between the cells. You may notice that most cells look similar and are not showing
any evidence of mitosis. These cells are in interphase.
6. Take photographs of the cells. Label all structures and organelles that you can see and identify.
7. Look for cells with visible chromosomes. Identify the different phases of mitosis that can be seen in the
photos.
8. Under each photo label the cell with the appropriate phase name.
9. Locate a cell that is undergoing cytokinesis.
Results:
Include your labelled cell diagrams in this section.
Include a labelled photograph of the onion plant.
Write summary of key data. Identify anomalous data , if any.

Analysis and discussion:

1. Briefly describe the events that occur during interphase.
2. Describe how cytokinesis in plant cells is different to cytokinesis in animal cells.
3. If you prepared a slide using the stem of the onion plant, would you expect to see a similar number of cells
undergoing mitosis? Explain.
4. The diploid number for onions is 16. What does diploid mean?
5. How many chromosomes would you expect in each of the new cells formed by mitosis in onion?
6. Most nerve cells in the adult central nervous system do not complete the cell cycle. What would this mean
for a person who has damaged nervous tissue in the spinal cord?
7. Outline three safety precautions you would follow if you where using a microscope. Explain how they are
relevant to this experiment.
8. Outline one improvement to the experimental design or procedure for this activity. What could you have
done to improve the quality of the results?
9. Outline one recommendation for further research related to the experiment.
10. Anomalous data can be identified in some experiments. When looking at the results of one group of
students their cell photographs were as follows. What is the anomalous data and give two reasons that
could have caused the students to get these results?

Conclusion
Write a conclusion to the investigation. This should relate to the aim of the experiment.

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