Cells divide at different rates. The fastest bacteria can divide every 20 minutes. No wonder you can feel sick with food poisoning within hours of eating undercooked food! On the other hand, some nerve cells in your body do not divide much at all. The nerve cells in a 100-year old person could be close to 100 years old.

Read the examples of cell division. Drag each sentence into the correct box.

A plant produces pollen cells with half the chromosomes of the parent cells. A bacterium divides to make two identical daughter cells. A skin cell divides rapidly to replace tissue damaged by a scrape. A cell duplicates its genetic material once and then divides twice to make 4 daughter cells.
Meiosis Mitosis

Which of the following diseases may be transmitted through an accidental needle stick? a. syphilis b. tuberculosis c. cellulitis d. hepatitis b

In eukaryotes, genetic information is passed to the next generation by processes that include mitosis or meiosis. which of the explanations identifies the correct process and supports the claim that heritable information is passed from one generation to another? a. mitosis, followed by cytokinesis, produces daughter cells that are genetically different from the parent cell, thus insuring variation within the population. b. during mitosis, dna replication occurs twice within the cell cycle to insure a full set of chromosomes within each of the daughter cells produced. c. in asexual reproduction, a single individual is the sole parent and passes copies of its genes to its offspring without the fusion of gametes. d. single-celled organisms can fuse their cells, reproducing asexually through mitosis to form new cells that are not identical to the parent cell.

How do accessory pigments chlorophyll?