UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE DE MEXICO FEBRUARY 17TH, 2021

MITOSIS
(DANIEL ARMANDO SALAZAR ALEMAN)

BIOLOGY II
 INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS MITOSIS? According to Khan academy: “Mitosis is a type of cell division in
which one cell (the mother) divides to produce two new cells (the daughters) that are
genetically identical to itself. In the context of the cell cycle, mitosis is the part of the
division process in which the DNA of the cell's nucleus is split into two equal sets of
chromosomes.
The great majority of the cell divisions that happen in your body involve mitosis. During
development and growth, mitosis populates an organism’s body with cells, and throughout
an organism’s life, it replaces old, worn-out cells with new ones. For singlecelled
eukaryotes like yeast, mitotic divisions are actually a form of reproduction, adding new
individuals to the population.
In all of these cases, the “goal” of mitosis is to make sure that each daughter cell gets a
perfect, full set of chromosomes. Cells with too few or too many chromosomes usually do
not function well: they may not survive, or they may even cause cancer. So, when cells
undergo mitosis, they do not just divide their DNA at random and toss it into piles for the
two daughter cells. Instead, they split up their duplicated chromosomes in a carefully
organized series of steps.”
HYPOTHESIS
We think that we will get clear data and that we will be able to analyze it concisely, the
root will grow, and each phase of the mitosis process will be seen through the microscope.
MATERIALS AND REAGENTS
 METHODOLOGY
1.Place an onion over a glass with water for a week, with the base of the onion just being
in contact with water. Keep it in the dark until new tiny roots start growing (~2cm. long),
just like in the figure:

2.Snip a segment of the new root (~1cm. long) and place it on a microscope slide.
3.To hydrolyze, add some HCl 1N drops (previously heated at 40°C) and let it rest for 8
minutes.
4.Wipe the HCl in excess.
5.Add some acetocarmine drops and let it rest for 15 minutes. If the colorant starts drying
out, periodically apply additional drops.
6.Change the explant to a new slide. Add one acetic acid drop and immediately cover with
a slip.
7.Use a pencil’s eraser to perform a “squash”, that is, press and expand the tissue to form
a single layer of cells; this will allow them to be visible under the microscope.
8.Seal the cover slip with nail polish.
9.Watch under the microscope using the 10x, 40x and 100x objective lenses.

RESULTS:
 Phase: Metaphase
Phase: Prophase
Description: The spindle has captured
Description: the cell starts to break
down some structures and build others all the chromosomes and lined them up
at the middle of the cell, ready to divide.
up, setting the stage for division of the
chromosomes, and then the mitotic
spindle begins to capture and organize
the chromosomes

Phase: Anaphase
Description: The sister chromatids
separate from each other and are pulled
towards opposite ends of the cell.
Phase: Telophase
Description: The cell is nearly done
dividing, and it starts to re-establish its
normal structures as cytokinesis
(division of the cell contents) takes
place.

DISCUSSION
1.What is acetocarmine, and what is its function? Acetocarmine is a non-specific
nuclear stain which simply binds the chromosomes and gives color to them. However,
specific nuclear stain reacts with chromosomes to give them the color. Acetocarmine is a
dye obtained from insects.
2.What were the toughest phases to identify? What contributed to that? The
assignment that we did before in this course really helped us out to identify and describe
all the mitosis phases
3.Why were new root cells used for this experiment? Because they are easy to
“produce” and we can get them from many other organisms.
4. List 2 other organisms which you could use for a similar experiment and explain
why. We could use beans or garlic; they are easy to find and can also produce new
roots.
5.What other living organism could you use to extract its DNA? Why? Humans! I do
not think we can do that for school, but it is really common to get DNA out of human blood.

CONCLUSIONS
This experiment was really simple but effective, it makes you understand better how
mitosis works and how plants and many other organisms work, how they grow or expand.
Even though we are doing it remotely, this helps us out to understand the topis really well
and in a practical way! We enjoyed doing all this research and looking into the pictures of
a real mitosis process.
 References
• DNA extraction. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2036-dnaextraction

•
DNA extraction isolates DNA from biological material. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.whatisbiotechnology.org/index.php/science/summary/extraction/dna-extractionisolates-dna-
from-biological-material

•
Meiosis | Cell division | Biology (article). (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/heredity/meiosis-and-geneticdiversity/a/phases-of-
meiosis

•
Acetocarmine. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/acetocarmine
• What is mitosis? (2017, May 17). Retrieved from https://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-ismitosis