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Chapter 12 The Cell Cycle Lecture Outline Overview: The Key Roles of Cell Division The ability of organisms to reproduce their own kind is the one characteristic that best distinguishes living things from nonliving matter. The continuity of life is based on the reproduction of cells, or cell division. Cell division functions in reproduction, growth, and repair. The division of a unicellular organism reproduces an entire organism, thereby increasing the population. Cell division on a larger scale can produce progeny for some multicellular organisms. This includes organisms that can grow by cuttings. Cell division enables a multicellular organism to develop from a single fertilized egg or zygote. In a multicellular organism, cell division functions to repair and renew cells that die from normal wear and tear or accidents. Cell division is an integral part of the cell cycle, the life of a cell from its origin in the division of a parent cell until its own division into two. Concept 12.1 Cell division results in genetically identical daughter cells. Cell division requires the distribution of identical genetic material—DNA—to two daughter cells. The special type of cell division that produces sperm and eggs results in daughter cells that are not genetically identical. What is remarkable is the fidelity with which DNA is passed along, without dilution, from one generation to the next. A dividing cell duplicates its DNA, allocates the two copies to opposite ends of the cell, and only then splits into daughter cells. A cell’s genetic information, packaged as DNA, is called its genome. In prokaryotes, the genome is often a single long DNA molecule. In eukaryotes, the genome consists of several DNA molecules. A human cell must duplicate about 2 m of DNA and separate the two copies so that each daughter cell ends up with a complete genome. DNA molecules are packaged into chromosomes. Every eukaryotic species has a characteristic number of chromosomes in each cell nucleus. Hu