CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL AS & A LEVEL BIOLOGY: PRACTICAL TEACHER’S GUIDE

5 Cell division and

nucleic acids
CHAPTER OUTLINE
This chapter relates to Chapter 5: The mitotic cell cycle, and Chapter 6: Nucleic acids and
protein synthesis, in the Coursebook.
In this chapter students will complete practical investigations on:
• 5.1 Making a root tip squash
• 5.2 Investigating mitosis using prepared slides.

Practical Investigation 5.1: Making a root tip squash

Learning outcome: 5.2.2

Skills focus
The following skills are developed and practised (see the skills grids at the front of this guide):
MMO Making decisions about measurements: (l), (n), (o)
PDO Recording data and observations: (f)

Duration
If students are successful first time, the investigation and drawings can be completed within 1 h. However, some
students may need to prepare a new slide if their first attempt is unsuccessful.

Preparing for the investigation

• Students should be familiar with the different stages of the cell cycle. Ensure that they can recognise the
stages of mitosis in plant cells from micrographs.
• They should be confident in preparing temporary slides and using a microscope.

You will need

Each student or group will need:

Equipment Access to
• young seedling (e.g. fava bean, garlic) • filter paper • distilled
• clean microscope slide and coverslip • small bottle of 1 mol dm–3 hydrochloric water
• scalpel, sharp knife or safety razor blade acid, with a dropper
• a means of gently heating the slide • small bottle of orcein ethanoic stain
(Bunsen burner, spirit burner or hot (acetic orcein stain), with a dropper
plate) • watch glass or other small glass container
• mounted needle • white tile

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Additional notes and advice

• Suitable root tips can be prepared by suspending a whole garlic bulb so that its base is in water. Keep the
water topped up. Roots should appear within ten days (depending on temperature and the variety and
freshness of the garlic bulb.) It is a good idea to set some up about ten days before you intend to do the
practical, some eight days before, some six days before and so on. This should ensure a good supply of
suitable root tips of various ages on the day.
• Alternatively, germinate fava beans (broad beans) in damp blotting paper or filter paper.
• Orcein ethanoic stain, also known as acetic orcein, can be obtained from any biological supplier.
• There is a variety of alternative techniques for making a temporary slide to show mitosis. If you would like
to try a slightly different technique, visit the Nuffield Foundation website (https://www.nuffieldfoundation.
org/), and click on the Teachers tab, which will take you to the Practical Biology area of the site, where
you will find detailed instructions for investigating mitosis in an allium root tip squash. This also
contains instructions for making orcein ethanoic stain yourself, if you are able to obtain orcein and
glacial ethanoic acid.
• Another excellent source of information is the Science and Plants for Schools website (https://www.saps.org.
uk/), where you can click on the Secondary tab and find detailed information about microscopy of mitosis in
root tips. This includes a video of some of the stages in the preparation of the slide, as well as a PowerPoint,
instructions for preparing for the practical, student notes and teacher notes.

Safety considerations
• Students should have read the Safety guidance section in the Practical Workbook before carrying out this
investigation.
• Standard laboratory safety procedures should be followed always.
• The suggested concentration of hydrochloric acid, 1 mol dm–3, is dilute. However, students should wash off
any acid that comes into contact with skin or clothes.
• Students should wear eye protection.
• Orcein is low hazard. However, it will stain skin, so it should be washed off immediately using cold water.
• The instructions recommend holding the watch glass in the fingers to pass it through the flame. This is to
prevent students letting it get too hot. However, they need to take care not to burn their fingers. Care also
needs to be taken if a hot plate is used.

Carrying out the investigation

• Success can never be guaranteed with this investigation. Even if students prepare their slide very well, it is
not always possible to see chromosomes in dividing cells. Some plants may undergo mitosis at certain times
of the day, so if you find you have no success when trying this practical in the morning, it is worth trying
again in an afternoon session. For this reason, it would be very valuable to try this out yourself before
setting the task for students to do. See also the Troubleshooting guide, Table 5.1, in the Practical Workbook.
Many students will not be successful in seeing chromosomes, and identifying stages in the cell cycle, on
their first attempt. It is strongly recommended that you encourage them to use Table 5.1 to try to solve their
problems themselves first, before asking you to intervene.
• Students may need reminding of the guidelines for drawing good diagrams of cells. They may be tempted to
draw idealised diagrams of the different stages of mitosis, rather than what they can actually see.
Students who are quickly successful in producing a slide on which they can see dividing cells could try
comparing the number of cells in mitosis in garlic roots of different ages. (You have probably provided
garlic bulbs that were set up on various days before the practical investigation.) They could use an eyepiece
graticule to measure the mean size of a sample of cells in mitosis, and compare this with the mean size of
cells in interphase.

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Sample results
See Figure 5.1.

Prophase
Interphase cell surface
membrane
cell surface
membrane

nucleolus
nuclear envelope
chromatin still present
chromosomes
nuclear envelope             appearing as threads

Metaphase
cell surface
membrane Anaphase

cell surface
membrane

position of centromeres

chromosomes arranged
at the equator            chromatids separating to poles
Telophase

chromosomes
decondensing

cell surface nuclear envelope

membrane reforming

Figure 5.1

Practical Investigation 5.2: Investigating mitosis

using prepared slides
Learning outcome: 5.2.2

Skills focus
The following skills are developed and practised (see the skills grids at the front of this guide):
MMO Making decisions about measurements: (l), (o)
Successfully collect data and observations: (a), (d), (i)
PDO Recording data and observations: (a)
Layout of data or observations: (f), (g)
ACE Interpreting data or observations and identifying sources of error: (a)
Suggesting improvements or modifications to extend an investigation: (c)

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Duration
Counting the cells and completing the tally chart can be done in approximately 20–30 min. Another 30 min will
be required for answering the questions.

Preparing for the investigation

Students should be familiar with the different stages of the cell cycle. Ensure that they can recognise the stages
of mitosis in plant cells from micrographs.

You will need

Each student or group will need:

Equipment
• microscope
• prepared slide of a root tip, stained to show cells undergoing mitosis

Additional notes and advice

Prepared slides of mitosis can be obtained from Cambridge. You can order these through the publications list,
available through the cambridgeinternational.org website.

Safety considerations
• Students should have read the Safety guidance section in the Practical Workbook before carrying out this
investigation.
• Standard laboratory safety procedures should be followed always.
• There are no additional significant safety issues associated with this investigation.

Carrying out the investigation

• If the prepared slide is of good quality, students should have little difficulty in finding and identifying cells
in various stages of mitosis.
• It must be remembered that the process of mitosis is a continuous one, so there is no sharp dividing line
between each stage. Students may therefore find it difficult to assign some cells to a particular stage. They
should make a decision about this, and then try to make similar decisions for similar cells.
• Some stages are easier to pick out than others; for example, cells in anaphase tend to stand out more
clearly than cells in prophase. This may mean that the number of cells in some stages is overestimated, in
comparison with other stages.
Students who have difficulty in identifying cells on the prepared slide could be shown micrographs of groups
of cells at a similar magnification to those in their field of view, and practise identifying and counting cells in
the micrograph. (A web search will produce a number of examples of suitable micrographs.)
If not done in Practical Investigation 5.1, students could use an eyepiece graticule to measure the mean size
of a sample of cells in mitosis, and compare this with the mean size of cells in interphase.
Students who require a further challenge could be asked to prepare a ‘help sheet’ for future biology students,
which provides annotated drawings or photographs of cells in each stage of mitosis, with a summary of
what students should look for when viewing a prepared slide, to identify which stage of mitosis a cell is in.
This should be done using their own experience of viewing the slide.

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Sample results
See Table 5.1.

Stage Interphase Prophase Metaphase Anaphase Telophase

Tally

Number 54 11 6 3 9
Table 5.1

Answers:
Answers to the workbook questions (using the sample results)
a Prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase
b (11 + 6 + 3 + 9) ÷ 54 = 0.54
c Total number of cells counted = 83
Percentage in interphase = 65.1
Percentage in prophase = 13.3
Percentage in metaphase = 7.2
Percentage in anaphase = 3.6
Percentage in telophase = 10.8
d Total time for one cell cycle = 9 h
= 540 min
Estimated time in interphase = 65.1% of 540
= 352 min
Estimated time in prophase = 13.3% of 540
= 72 min
Estimated time in metaphase = 7.2% of 540
= 39 min
Estimated time in anaphase = 3.6% of 540
= 19 min
Estimated time in telophase = 10.8% of 540
= 58 min
e See Figure 5.2.

Anaphase Illustrator’s note: percentages changed

Telophase from brief after discussion with author.
NOTE that percentages need to be
changed in TG text to the following:
Metaphase Interphase 65.1
Prophase 13.3
Metaphase 7.2
Anaphase 3.6
Prophase Interphase Telophase 10.8

Figure 5.2

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f There are likely to be considerable differences between the times calculated by different students. The two
main reasons are as follows:
• The prepared slides used are not the same – they may perhaps show different species of plant or
different parts of the root tip, or they may have been made at a different time of day – note that in
some plants the mitotic cell cycle can take place on a diurnal cycle, or be influenced by day length or
temperature.
• Students may have differed in their interpretations of the stages they can see. The stages are continuous,
so there are justifiable reasons why one student might consider a cell to be in metaphase while another
thinks it is in anaphase.
g By far the most effective way of achieving more reliable results is to increase the sample size. Students could
count more cells on several different slides.

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