Mitosis

Not to be confused with meiosis, miosis, or myositis.
Mitosis divides the chromosomes in a cell nucleus.

Mitosis is the process by which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cellnucleus into two identical sets in two nuclei.[1] It is generally followed immediately by cytokinesis, which divides the nuclei, cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane into two cells containing roughlyequal shares of these cellular components. Mitosis and cytokinesis together define the mitotic (M) phase of the cell cycle - the division of the mother cell into two daughter cells, geneticallyidentical to each other and to their parent cell. This accounts for approximately 10% of the cell cycle.

Mitosis occurs exclusively in eukaryotic cells, but occurs in different ways in differentspecies. For example, animals undergo an "open" mitosis, where the nuclear envelope breaks down before the chromosomes separate, while fungi such as Aspergillus nidulans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast)undergo a "closed" mitosis, where chromosomes divide within an intact cell nucleus.[2] Prokaryotic cells, which lack a nucleus, divide by a process called binary fission.

The process of mitosis iscomplex and highly regulated. The sequence of events is divided into phases, corresponding to the completion of one set of activities and the start of the next. These stages are prophase,prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. During the process of mitosis the pairs of chromosomes condense and attach to fibers that pull the sister chromatids to opposite sides of the cell. The cell thendivides in cytokinesis, to produce two identical daughter cells.[3]

Because cytokinesis usually occurs in conjunction with mitosis, "mitosis" is often used interchangeably with "mitotic phase".However, there are many cells where mitosis and cytokinesis occur separately, forming single cells with multiple nuclei. This occurs most notably among the fungi and slime moulds, but is found in...