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The Cell Cycle And Dna Replication

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Question 1:
a)
The two processes, with which a cell passes this DNA sequence onto other cells, are DNA replication and mitosis. The cell cycle is inclusive of mitosis and DNA replication, the latter of which occurs in the S phase (synthesis) of the cycle. The goal of the S phase is to create two identical semi-conservative chromosomes. The enzyme helicase unwinds the parental DNA double helix strand and uses it as a template so the enzyme DNA polymerase can attach free-floating nucleotides to the separate DNA ‘daughter’ strands using the complementary base pairing rule, in which A-T and C-G pair together. In this way, the process of DNA replication is deemed ‘semi-conservative’ as one parental strand is always passed on to daughter helix of DNA (Campbell & Reece, 2005).
Now that the DNA has been replicated, mitosis can occur, which entails the cell (which now contains two strands of identical DNA) undergoing nuclear division that results in the formation of two genetically identical daughter cells (Tortora & Grabowski, 2003). Mitosis is a process which consists of five phases in itself; prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase/cytokinesis. The duplicated chromosomes are now known as sister chromatids which are attached at a centre point called a centromere. During prophase, these chromatids inside the cell condense and become tightly coiled, and also, a mitotic spindle begins to form. In prometaphase, the nuclear membrane of the cell fragments and one

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