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Background:
Mitosis is the process of cell division that occurs in somatic (body) cells.
In mitosis, a cell divides to give two daughter cells, essentially identical to the
parent cell. Mitosis results in an equal distribution of hereditary material and
usually an equal distribution of the cell contents. All of us began life as single
cells. These cells divided by mitosis to become 2, then 4, then 8, then 16 cells
and so on. At some point some of these cells started to differentiate into other
cell types to form our various tissues.
Materials:
a. Clip the terminal 1 cm of the root tip from a growing onion bulb.
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b. Place several drops of 1 M HCl in a watch glass.
f. Using a razor blade or sharp scalpel, cut off and retain the tip-most 1 mm of
the root. Chop the root tip into many pieces with the razor blade.
g. Apply a clean cover glass to the slide and heat it gently for 5 min. on a slide
warmer.
h. Cover the slide with a paper towel and push downward firmly with your thumb
over the cover glass.
i. Examine with the light microscope at low power and high power. Look for cells
where the nuclei have stained red-purple.
Interphase cell
2. Review the process of mitosis using the mitosis poster or laminated diagrams.
3. Observe mitosis on prepared slides of onion root tip and whitefish. Identify
cells in the stages of interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and
telophase.
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Interphase: Chromatin appears dispersed, DNA replication occurs.
Organism ____________. Draw cells in each stage for either onion or whitefish.
Interphase
3
Anaphase
Chromosomes condense
Chromosomes disperse
Spindle forms
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Nuclear membrane reforms