GCSE Biology

The cell cycle contains many processes such as interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase and cytokinesis. Mitosis includes metaphase, anaphase and telophase. Why do people refer to the cell cycle as mitosis when mitosis is a process in the cell cycle?

Reply 1

Ezeokoyechisom

Original post by VoiidDev

The cell cycle is only associated with mitosis. The cell cycle is the normal process of cell division with which cells can indefinitely increase their number by cyclically repeating the process. When a cell goes through the cycle, the result is two cells that are genetically identical.

Meiosis is a special type of cell division (which can occur only in eukaryotes) that produces cells that are not genetically identical to the initiating cell. The number of chromosomes in each of the resulting cells is half the number that were in the initial cell. (These haploid cells can later participate in fertilization, producing a cell with the original number of chromosomes.) Many of the steps of meiosis are similar to the steps involved in mitosis, but overall the process is more complex. Since meiosis reduces the number of chromosomes, it cannot be repeated and so does not take part in a cell division cycle.