The 4 phases of mitosis: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase (2023)

To heal an injury, your body must replace damaged cells with new, healthy ones... and mitosis plays a crucial role in this process!Mitosis is a process of cell division that helps keep you alive and healthy.In other words, in the world of cell biology, mitosis is a big deal!

But like anything related to science, mitosis can be a little confusing when you try to understand it. The central idea is thatThe process of mitosis involves fourstagesor the steps you need to understand if you want to understand how mitosis works.

In this article, we will do the following to break down the four stages of mitosis to help you become familiar with the stages of mitosis:

• Briefly define mitosis and eukaryotic cells.
• Divide the four phases of mitosis in order
• Provide mitotic diagrams for the stages of mitosis.
• Provide five resources to learn more about the stages of mitosis

Let's dive!

Featured image: Jpablo Cadand Juliana Osorio/Wikimedia Commons

(Marek Kulty/Wikimedia Commons)

What is Mitosis?

Mitosis is a process that occurs duringcell cycle.The role of mitosis in the cell cycle is to replicate genetic material in an existing cell, known as a "mother cell", and distribute that genetic material to two new cells known as "daughter cells".To pass its genetic material on to the two new daughter cells, a parent cell must undergo cell division or mitosis. Mitosis results in two new nuclei, containing DNA, which eventually become two identical cells.cytokinesis.

Mitosis takes place ineukaryotic (animal) cells. Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus that contains the cell's genetic material. A crucial part of mitosis involves the breakdown ofKernmembranathat surrounds the cell's DNA so that the DNA can replicate and separate into new cells. Other cell types, such asprokaryote, do not have a nuclear membrane surrounding their cellular DNA, so mitosis occurs only in eukaryotic cells.

The main purpose of mitosis is to achieve cell regeneration, cell replacement and growth in living organisms.. Mitosis is important because it ensures that all new cells created in a given organism have the same number of chromosomes and genetic information. To achieve this objective,Mitosis occurs in four discrete sequential phases: 1) prophase, 2) metaphase, 3) anaphase, and 4) telophase..

Here's an overview of mitosis, which is more of an introduction to what mitosis is and how it works.. If you're still a little shaken by mitosis, this is definitely the place to start.

What we are going to focus on in more detail in this article are the 4 stages of mitosis: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase and what happens during these stages. So let's get down to business.

The 4 phases of mitosis: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase

So what are the stages of mitosis?The four stages of mitosis are known as prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.In addition, we mention three other intermediate stages (interphase, prometaphase, and cytokinesis) involved in mitosis.

During the four phases of mitosis, nuclear division occurs so that one cell divides into two. Sounds pretty easy, right? But different things happen at each stage of mitosis, and each stage is essential for cell division to occur properly. That is, successful cell division depends on the precision and regulation ofeachmitotic phase. Therefore, it is important to understand and articulate the role of each phase of mitosis as a whole.

Also, you may have seen or heard that the parts of mitosis are called different things: mitotic phases, stages of mitosis, stages of mitosis, or maybe even something else.All these different terms refer to the exact same process.As long as you remember the phases/stages/stages of mitosisAlwaysthey happen in the same order no matter which of these phrases you use!

Below we will detail the four phases of mitosis so that you can understand how mitosis occurs in each phase.

(Ph. Immel/Wikimedia Commons)

Interphase: what happens before mitosis

We can think of the interface as a transition phase.intermediate phaseAt this time, the mother cell is preparing for mitosis.. This phase is not considered part of mitosis, but understanding what happens during interphase can help make the steps of mitosis a little more meaningful.

You can think of Interphase as the opening act. They're not the band you came for, but they get the crowd pumped up for the main event.

EUInterphase occurs before the onset of mitosis and includes what is known as the G1 stage or first gap, S stage or synthesis, and G2 stage or second gap.. Levels G1, S and G2 must always occur in this order. The cell cycle begins with the G1 stage, which is part of interphase.

So how does the parent cell prepare for mitosis during interphase?During interphase, the cell is busy growing. It produces proteins and cytoplasmic organelles during the G1 phase, duplicates its chromosomes during the S phase, and continues to grow in preparation for mitosis in the G2 phase.

In the cell cycle, interphase not only occurs before Mitosis - also alternates with mitosis. It is important to remember that this is a recurring cycle..When mitosis ends, interphase starts again! In fact, in the grand scheme of the cell cycle, mitosis is a much shorter phase than interphase.

(Kelvin's song/Wikimedia Commons)

Phase 1: Prophase

Prophase is the first stage of mitosis.This is when the genetic fibers of the nucleus, known aschromatin, starts to condense and tight together.

During interphase, the parent cell's chromosomes replicate but are not yet visible. They just float around in the form of loose chromatin. During prophase, this loose chromatin condenses and forms into discrete, visible chromosomes.

Because each chromosome in the parent cell has been replicated during interphase, there are two copies of each chromosome in the cell during prophase.Once the chromatin has condensed into individual chromosomes, the genetically identical chromosomes stick together to form an "X" shape, calledsister chromatids.

These sister chromatids carry identical DNA and are joined in the middle (in the middle of the "X" shape) at a point calledCentromere. Centromeres serve as anchors used to separate sister chromatids during a later phase of mitosis. And this is what happens in the nucleus during prophase!

After the formation of sister chromatids, two structures are namedin centrosomesremove one from the otherForato núcleoAs they move to opposite sides of the cell, the centrosomes form something called centrosomes.mitotic spindle. The mitotic spindle will eventually be responsible for separating the identical sister chromatids into two new cells and is made up of long chains of proteins calledmicrotubules.

late prophase: prometaphase

Prometaphase is often referred to as "late prophase". (Although it's sometimes referred to as "early metaphase" or a phase all by itself!) Regardless, some really important things that drive cell division happen during prometaphase.Ythat help explain what happens in metaphase.

Prometaphase is the phase of mitosis following prophase and preceding metaphase.The short version of what happens during prometaphase is that the nuclear membrane collapses..

Here's the long version of what happens during the Promise phase: First,membrana nuclear ou envelope nuclear(i.e., the lipid bilayer that surrounds the nucleus and surrounds the genetic material in the nucleus) breaks down into a bundle of membrane vesicles. Once the nuclear envelope breaks down, the sister chromatids that were trapped in the nucleus break apart.

Now that the core's protective shell is gone,kinetochore microtubulesapproach the sister chromatids and join them at the centromere (that point in the middle of the "X").These kinetochore microtubules are now anchored at opposite poles at each end of the cell, so they extend toward the sister chromatids, connecting them to one edge of the cell.

It's like catching a fish with a fishing rod: eventually, the chromatids pull apart and push to opposite ends of the cell.

And that's the end of the Promise phase.After prometaphase ends, metaphase, the second official phase of mitosis, begins.

(Kelvin's Song/Wikimedia Commons)

Fase 2: Metafase

Metaphase is the phase of mitosis that follows prophase and prometaphase and precedes anaphase. metaphase beginsSince all kinetochore microtubules attach to the centromeres of sister chromatids during prometaphase.

Here's how it happens: The force generated during prometaphase causes the microtubules to start pulling the sister chromatids back and forth. Because microtubules are anchored at opposite ends of the cell, their movement back and forth on different sides of the sister chromatids gradually displaces the sister chromatids toward the center of the cell.

This equal and opposite tension causes the sister chromatids to move along an imaginary but very important! – Alignment line passing through the middle of the cell. This imaginary line that divides the cell in half is called the data.Metaphase plate or equatorial plane.

For metaphase to transition to anaphase, the sister chromatids must be evenly distributed on this metaphase plate. This is where the metaphase checkpoint comes into play:The metaphase checkpoint ensures that the kinetochores are correctly attached to the mitotic spindles and that the sister chromatids are evenly distributed and aligned on the metaphase plate.When this happens, the cell is given the green light to proceed to the next phase of mitosis.

The checkpoint is very important because it helps the cell ensure that its mitosis results in two new identical cells with the same DNA! This can only happen when the cell has successfully passed the metaphase checkpoint.the cell moves on to the next stage of mitosis: anaphase.

(Kelvin's song/Wikimedia Commons)

Phase 3: Anaphase

The third phase of mitosis, after metaphase and the preceding telophase, is anaphase. Since the sister chromatids began to unitein centrosomesat opposite ends of the metaphase cell, they are primed and ready to begin separating and forming genetically identical daughter chromosomes during anaphase.

During anaphase, the centromeres are cut at the center of the sister chromatids.. (It looks worse than it is!) Remember how sister chromatids are attached to the mitotic spindle? The spindle is made up of microtubules that begin to shrink during this phase of mitosis. They gradually separate the sister chromatids towards opposite poles of the cell.

Anaphase ensures that each chromosome receives identical copies of the parent cell's DNA. The sister chromatids divide in half at their centromere and become single, identical chromosomes. Since sister chromatids divide during anaphase, they are known as sister chromosomes. (In fact, they're more like identical twins!) These chromosomes function independently in new, separate cells when mitosis is complete, but they still share identical genetic information.

Finally during theIn the second half of anaphase, the cell begins to elongate as the polar microtubules push against each other.. It no longer looks like a round cell, but... well, more like an egg as the new sets of chromosomes move away.

At the end of anaphase, the chromosomes reach their maximum level of condensation. This helps the newly separated chromosomesstayseparates and prepares the cell nucleus for regeneration. . . It occurs in the final phase of mitosis: telophase.

(Kelvin's song/Wikimedia Commons)

Fase 4: Telofase

Telophase is the last phase of mitosis.In telophase, the newly separated daughter chromosomes acquire their own individual nuclear membranes and identical sets of chromosomes.

Toward the end of anaphase, the microtubules begin to push against each other, causing the cell to elongate. These polar microtubules elongate the cell during telophase! Meanwhile, separate daughter chromosomes that are pulled to opposite ends of the cell finally reach the mitotic spindle.

After the daughter chromosomes have completely separated at opposite poles of the cell, membrane vesicles from the crumbling former nuclear envelope of the parent cell form anovoatomic layer.This new nuclear envelope forms around two separate sets of daughter chromosomes, creating two separate nuclei within the same cell.

You can think of the events of telophase as the reverse of the events that occur during prophase and prometaphase. Remember how prophase and prometaphase are about the nucleus of the mother cell starting to break down and break apart?Telophase is the process of remodeling the nuclear envelope around new nuclei to separate them from the cytoplasm of each cell.

Now that the two sets of daughter chromosomes are wrapped in a new nuclear envelope, they begin to expand again.. When this occurs, it is the end of telophase and mitosis is complete.

(The lady with the hats/Wikimedia Commons)

Cytokinesis: what happens after mitosis

like the interface,cytokinesisIt's not part of mitosis, but it's definitely an important part of the cell cycle, which is essential for completing cell division. Sometimes the occurrence of cytokinetic events overlaps with telophase and even anaphase, but cytokinesis is still considered a separate process from mitosis.

Cytokinesis is the actual division of thecell membranein two separate cells. At the end of mitosis, two new nuclei are contained in the existing parent cell, which has extended into an elongated shape. So at this point there are two full nuclei sticking out of a cell!

So how does one cell become two cells? Cytokinesis is responsible for completing the cell division process, taking these new nuclei, splitting the old cell in half, and ensuring that each of the new daughter cells contains one of the new nuclei.

This is how the separation of old cells is performed during cytokinesis: remember that imaginary line that runs down the center of the cell dividing the centrosomes called the metaphase plate? During cytokinesis, a contractile ring of protein filaments develops where this metaphase plate used to be.

Once the contractile ring forms in the center of the cell, it begins to shrink, pulling the cell's outer plasma membrane inward. You can think of it as a belt that tightens around the center of the cell, squeezing it into two sections.Eventually, the contractile ring contracts so much that the plasma membrane is compressed and the separated cell nuclei can form their own cells.

The end of cytokinesis means the end of the M phase of the cell cycle, which includes mitosis.At the end of cytokinesis, the division portion of the cell cycle officially ends.

5 resources (free!) to continue studying the stages of mitosis

Mitosis is a complex process, and the stages of mitosis involve many complicated words and unfamiliar concepts that you might want to learn more about. If you want to delve into the 4 stages of mitosis,Take a look at our five suggested resources to further study the steps of mitosis, explained below!

#1: Mitosis animations online

Reading all about mitosis can definitely help, but what if visual representations really helped you understand how things work? This is where mitosis web animations can come in handy.Seeing mitosis in action through web animations can help you get a feel for what all these verbal descriptions really mean.They can also help you imagine what the stages of mitosis would look like under a real microscope!

There are probably many web animations of mitosis that you can check out, but we recommend these three:

• John Kyrks Mitose-Animation
• "Online Onion Root Tips" from The Biology Project.
• "Animal Cell Mitosis" do Cells Alive.

We particularly like Cells Alive's Animal Cell Mitosis animation because it lets you pause the animation as you go through the stages of mitosis to get a closer look at how mitosis works. The Cells Alive version also juxtaposes animation of the stages of mitosis with images of mitosis under a microscope, so if you're tasked with observing cell mitosis in the lab, you'll know what to look for.

#2: „Mitosis: Dividing is difficultby Crash Course

If you're a little tired of reading the dense material and need someone to put the stages of mitosis in more accessible terms, head over to YouTube and watch Crash Course's 10-minute video on mitosis, called"Mitosis: Dividing is difficult".

The beauty of this video is that while it's a little more comprehensive than some of the other YouTube videos you can find on mitosis, it's also a lot of fun. More important,explains mitosis in terms of familiar, everyday biological processes, like when you cut yourself and need your body to make new cells to heal.

If you need help thinking about the relevance of the stages of mitosis to the real world, which isn't just something to remember in a lab or exam, this is a great resource.

#3: "stages of mitosis' the Khan Academy

Here's another YouTube video, but the tone and style of this Khan Academy explanation of the steps of mitosis is a little different. Watching this tutorial on the stages of mitosis makes you feel a bit like you're in a biology class and your professor is drawing diagrams of mitosis.whileTo guide you through the whole process (except in this case, your teacher is nice and only uses neon colors to draw the graphs).

If you're looking for a step-by-step tutorial that adopts a slow pace and dives deeper into the stages of mitosis, Khan Academy is for you!

#4: Creating aMitose Daumenkino

For some students, the process of creating something to showcase their knowledge can help them memorize difficult concepts and/or develop a deeper understanding of how things work. So we recommend trying some old school tactics to increase your knowledge about the 4 stages of mitosis.A proven approach to learning the stages of mitosis that has been reviewed by biology teachers is to create a mitosis flipbook.

Post-It provides step-by-step instructions on how to make a mitosis flipbook, but it's pretty simple: You get something to draw on, get little cards or sticky notes to draw on, and draw as you go through each phase of the cell. The loop looks like personalized note cards/sticky notes!

When you're done drawing your version of the stages of mitosis on your cards, paste, paste or staple them together and you're done! You can flip through your mitosis flipbook from cover to cover and track the progress of mitosis through the four stages.

Activities like these can help you memorize what each step of mitosis looks like.Plus, when you finish your flipbook, you'll have a pocket-sized resource to take with you as part of your study guide or as a quick resource to review before a test or exam.

#5: „Mitosis Study Set” by ProProfs cards

Maybe you feel pretty good about your knowledge of the stages of mitosis, but need help testing that knowledge before a formal test or exam. that's whereThe ProProfs Flashcards "Mitosis Study Set"An online study guide appears that provides a series of flashcards to test your knowledge of the stages of mitosis.

The great thing about this set of flashcards is that you can choose different assessment styles based on your knowledge of mitosis.The flashcard set features traditional question and answer flashcards, a flashcard feature designed specifically for memorization, a multiple-choice quiz, and matching.If you want to practice how to test yourself in the stages of mitosisBeforethe real test, check out this resource!

ProProfs Flashcards offers several sets of studies on other topics related to mitosis. So if you need to test your knowledge of mitosis beyond the four stages, this resource can help too.

That follow?

What is the difference between mitosis and meiosis??Learn more with our side-by-side comparison.

Need to review the different parts of the cell and what they do?We will guide you through it.cell membrane functions,Endoplasmatisches Retikulum, YI'm sure that. When you learn best by looking at the big picture, you'll want to keep itour complete guide to animal cellsHelpful for you to refer to as you read about each individual cell structure.

If you need more traditional resources to learn more about the cell cycle, Our list of the best AP biology books to study has got you covered..

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