Question

What are the purposes of mitosis? At what stage of mitosis do the chromosomes line up in the middle of the cell? What is happening at this stage in mitosis?

Answer 1

Mitosis is a type of cell division that takes place in the somatic cells. Cells produced via mitosis have the same number of chromosomes as that in the parent cell.
Purposes of mitosis:

1. Mitosis helps in the growth of the body.

2. Mitosis is involved in regeneration of organs and other body parts.

3. Development of embryo takes place via mitosis.

In the metaphase stage of mitosis all chromosomes line up at the centre of the cell.

During the prometaphase each chromosome consisting of two sister chromatids gets attached to the kinetochore microtubules. Kinetochore microtubules pull the chromosomes back and forth and eventually chromosomes get aligned at the cell equator. Each chromosome is connected to the kinetochore microtubules from both the poles.