Key Terms
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- anaphase
- stage of mitosis during which sister chromatids are separated from each other
- cell plate
- structure formed during plant cell cytokinesis by Golgi vesicles, forming a temporary structure (phragmoplast) and fusing at the metaphase plate; ultimately leads to the formation of cell walls that separate the two daughter cells
- centromere
- region at which sister chromatids are bound together; a constricted area in condensed chromosomes
- diploid
- cell with two sets of chromosomes
- fertilization
- union of two haploid cells from two individual organisms
- homologous chromosomes
- sister chromatids of the same chromosomes
- karyotypes
- a cell’s chromosomes
- kinetochores
- protein structure associated with the centromere of each sister chromatid that attracts and binds spindle microtubules during prometaphase
- metaphase
- stage of mitosis where the chromosomes are at their most compact
- nondisjunction
- failure of synapsed homologs to completely separate and migrate to separate poles during the meiosis’s first cell division
- prophase
- stage of mitosis during which chromosomes condense and the mitotic spindle begins to form
- reduction division
- halving the number of chromosomes
- sister chromatids
- identical copies of the same chromosome
- spindle fiber
- filaments formed during mitosis and meiosis
- telophase
- stage of mitosis during which chromosomes arrive at opposite poles, decondense, and are surrounded by a new nuclear envelope
- tetrad
- two duplicated homologous chromosomes (four chromatids) bound together by chiasmata during prophase I
- translocation
- process by which one chromosome segment dissociates and reattaches to a different, nonhomologous chromosome
