Mitotic Spirals: Five Hours of Cell Division

Mitotic Spirals: Five Hours of Cell Division

Ian Winsten Campbell

Koch Institute at MIT, MIT Department of Biology

The spindle is the machinery by which DNA is physically segregated into a newly created cell. Here the spindle is shown (white) as yeast cells grow and divide. New cells, referred to as buds, are built off of the old at the budneck (colored). When the bud is complete the spindle elongates and drags a replicated copy of the DNA into the new cell. This composite image shows cells over a five-hour period, spiraling out from the center through time. One cell becomes two, then two becomes four. This is the fundamental process by which cells reproduce and life grows.

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