Question

The diagram given alongside represents a stage during cell division. Study the same and answer the questions that follow:

1. Identify whether it is a plant cell or an animal cell. Give a reason to support your answer.
2. Name the stage depicted in the diagram. What is the unique feature observed in this stage?
3. Name the type of cell division that occurs during:
   1. Replacement of old leaves by new ones.
   2. Formation of gametes.
4. What is the stage that comes before the stage shown in the diagram?
5. Draw a neat, labelled diagram of the stage mentioned in (d) above keeping the chromosome number constant.

Answer 1

1. The given cell is a plant cell. It has a prominent, rigid, rectangular cell wall as its outer layer and lacks centrioles/asters at the poles of the spindle fibres.
2. The stage depicted in the diagram is metaphase. The chromosomes align themselves uniformly in a single horizontal plane along the equatorial plate (metaphase plate) of the spindle, with each chromosome attached to the spindle fibres at its centromere.
3. 1. Replacement of old leaves by new ones: Mitosis (responsible for growth, repair, and tissue replacement).
   2. Formation of gametes: Meiosis (reduction division occurring in reproductive cells).
4. The stage that comes before metaphase is prophase.
5.