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MATH CHEMISTRY PHYSICS

BIOLOGY EDUCATION

xaktly | Cell biology

The cell cycle

Cells undergo routine cycles

of growth, replication and
death
All cells go through a cycle of growth that
includes normal functioning, preparing to
reproduce or replicate, replication, and death.
This diagram of the cell cycle is one with which
you should become very familiar. In this section,
we'll go through it twice. Here we'll just give it a
once-over, and then we'll look at it in more detail
below, and in other sections that break out
certain features even more finely.
There are four basic phases of cell growth,
which we label (for historical reasons) G1, S, G2
and M.
The G1 phase of growth is the normal phase of
growth, development and usefulness of the cell.
In this phase a cell is growing and doing its job.
If it's a fat cell it's storing fat molecules; if it's a
muscle cell its contributing to the contraction
and relaxation of a muscle fiber, and so on.
The remaining three phases are all part of the
reproduction of the cell, culminating in the
process of mitosis.
In S phase, all of the DNA of the cell, much of
which was tightly coiled and packed for storage
(it wasn't in use) is unwound and completely
replicated by protein machinery specific to that
purpose.
In the G2 phase, the cell puts on a little more
mass in preparation to divide into two "daughter"
cells.
M phase is mitosis, the process of cell division
to two daughter cells identical to the parent cell.

A more detailed look

Now we'll take a more detailed look at the cell
cycle using the figure below. If you click/tap on it
you can download a .pdf version for your notes.
The section on mitosis (M-phase) below will be
less detailed than the page dedicated to mitosis,
so consider it to be an introduction to the
process of cell division.

G1: Normal growth phase

This phase of the cell is the normal growth and

functioning phase of the cell, usually the longest
in the cycle. It's important to note that not all
cells replicate that often. Nerve cells, particularly
those in the brain and spinal cord of mammals,
grow slowly and replicate infrequently.
The epithelial cells of mucous membranes, on
the other hand, turn over very frequently. So do
skin cells; they're constantly dying, sloughing off
of your body and being replaced from layers
beneath the surface.

So the G1 phase of a cell can be different

depending on the type of cell and the job it
does.
In the G1 phase, much of the DNA is coiled
tightly for storage because is isn't used. All cells
need to produce proteins and RNA molecules to
fulfill their roles in tissues, but not all cells need
access to the full genome of the organism.
One level of gene regulation – deciding which
genes are in use and which are not – involves
compact coiling of the DNA around protein
molecules called histones.
So the G1 phase consists of growth to full size,
and normal functioning using the part of the
genome needed to produce the products –
proteins and RNAs – that the cell needs to carry
out its job.

S-phase

In S-phase a cell continues to perform its

designated functions, but it also devotes some
energy to preparing to divide into two new cells.
The first step in division is replication of the
genome – all of its DNA.
Each daughter cell must contain a complete and
accurate copy of the genome, so at the end of
S-phase, one cell must have two complete and
identical copies. That's quite an accomplishment
when you consider, for example, that the human
genome, 23 chromosomes, contains about 3
billion DNA base pairs.
In S-phase, all DNA is unwound and made
ready for the copying machinery, a set of
enzymes that uncoil the double helix, then "walk"
along it making a mirror image of each individual
strand of each chromosome.
A few of the enzymes involved are
Helicase – responsible for unwinding the
double helix,
DNA transcriptase – responsible for
organizing the copying each strand, and
DNA ligase – adds each nucleotide to the
growing chain.

G2 phase

In G2 the cell nearly doubles in size, in

preparation for splitting into two cells in the M-
phase.
While the normal cell function can continue
through G2 phase, it is not at its best. The DNA
is not in its ideal state for cell function and
the cell is now devoting considerable energy
toward growth and extension of its cell wall and
membrane. At the end of G2 is where the fun
begins.

M phase – Mitosis

The process of mitosis is divided into four parts

that are characterized by some distinct visual
changes in the cell – changes that can often be
seen in a light microscope.
The cell diagrams here are little practice cells
that only contain two chromosomes, a dark one
and a light one, just for simplicity.

1. prophase
In prophase, the replicated strands of DNA,
identical "sisters," coil up as tightly as DNA can
to form sister chromatids, which are often
visible under a light microscope. It's remarkable
that the long strands of helical DNA can coil so
tightly. The sister chromatids are held together at
a special structure called the centromere.

In this phase the nuclear membrane, which

normally sequesters the DNA from the rest of the
cytoplasm, dissolves. It will be reformed – one
nucleus in each daughter cell – after the cell
divides.

2. metaphase
Metaphase is characterized by a profound
visible change. Each pair of chromatids lines up
more or less on the equator of the cell.
Microscopically, what is happening is that
microtubules, special protein fibers that can
elongate and contract, are hooking up to each
centromere and to two special structures, the
polar bodies, located in opposite parts of the
cell.

Sometimes we talk about a phase "1a", called

prometaphase, in which the microtubules are
attached, but the chromatids aren't yet lined up
on the equator. I've skipped that here.

3. anaphase
In anaphase, the microtubules, now in bundles
called spindle fibers, contract as the
centromeres separate, and each daughter
chromatid is pulled into its half of the dividing
cell.

At the end of anaphase, there are two distinct

clumps of DNA on two ends of a large cell, both
of which are high-fidelity copies of the genome
of the original cell. The single parent cell is ready
to split into daughter cells.

4. telophase
In telophase, the daughter cells begin to get
back to normal operation. Spindle fibers shrink,
DNA uncoils and repacks according to the work
that the cell needs to do, nuclear membranes re-
form and a new segment of cell wall bridges the
parent cell, which then pinches into two
individual daughter cells.

Then we're back to G1 phase when these two

cells finish pulling apart. They will grow and
function until it's time to divide again.

Cell death
Once in a while something goes wrong inside a
cell. It might be a mis-copied strand of DNA or
some other problem, which sets off a series of
responses leading to cell death, usually by a
process called apoptosis.
Apoptosis (most people omit the second P
sound and just say "ap'·a·toe'·sis") is more-or-
less an explosion of the cell. Rapidly, nuclear and
cell membranes weaken and dissolve, and the
contents of the cell spill out to be cleaned up by
other cells that have that job.
Sometimes cell death is said to be
"programmed." When an organism is first
developing, for example,
it may be advantageous for it to grow a certain
kind of progenitor cell that won't persist into the
grown organism; it's there to help with
development of different tissues and will
eventually die when it is no longer necessary for
the survival of the organism.
When the cell death mechanism is compromised
we can have problems. Cells have excellent
monitoring systems that can signal for death
when something like a cancer first develops. So
when the cell-death mechanism is out of order,
that cancerous cell might persist and grow,
perhaps into a tumor.

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