• Question: Exactly how does cell division occur? What makes it happen?

    Asked by 273cesk28 to Paul, Natasha, Ildiko, Ester on 8 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Natasha Myhill

      Natasha Myhill answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      What a cell does and when all comes down to the signals received from nearby cells, and from itself. So at some point the cell will receive a signal telling it to divide. When this happens, the cell makes a copy of all its DNA, and the chromosomes (what DNA is stored as in humans) line up along the middle of the cell. Then the cell is sort of pulled apart and one chromosome from each pair is taken to either side, and two new cells are created, both with a complete set of DNA.

    • Photo: Paul McKeegan

      Paul McKeegan answered on 10 Nov 2017:

      Yep, its part of the cell cycle and most cells do it. It is a process that has to be switched off in certain cells that do not divide. For example, the egg cell sits in the ovary for many years without dividing. A signalling chemical called ‘Maturation Promoting Factor’ is required for the cell to divide and while it is present in the egg, it is inactivated. Only when a special trigger arrives, in this case, a sperm during fertilisation, the MPF is switched back on and activates the division part of the cell cycle.

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