Question

identify the stage of mitosis in the picture below.
s phase
prophase
g2 phase
telophase
if an organism has 8 pairs of chromosomes before cell replication/mitotic division, how many total chromosomes will each of the new cells have.

Explanation:

• For the stage of mitosis:
• In prophase, chromatin condenses into visible chromosomes (as shown in the image), the nuclear envelope starts to break down (the white - like structures could represent remnants of the nuclear envelope), and spindle fibers (the yellow structures) begin to form.
• S phase and G2 phase are part of interphase, not mitosis. In interphase, chromosomes are in a less condensed form (chromatin) and not as visibly distinct as in the image.
• In telophase, the nuclear envelope reforms more completely around the separated chromosomes, and the chromosomes start to de - condense, which is not the case in the given image.
• For the chromosome number:
• Mitosis is a process of cell division where the parent cell (with \(n = 8\) pairs of chromosomes, so \(2n=16\) chromosomes) divides to produce two daughter cells.
• The key principle of mitosis is that it is a equational division. The daughter cells produced by mitosis have the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell.

Answer:

• Stage of mitosis: prophase
• Number of chromosomes in new cells: 16