Mitosis

Mitosis is a process of cell division for growth and repair. Not to be confused with meioses (meiosis involves sex cells for reproduction). In mitosis you  end up with two daughter cells, each identical to the original.

Quiz: Mitosis

FYI: Microtubules are also called spindle fibers

This is how I remember mitosis:

Mi-TOE-sis: my toe is not a sex organ 

This is how I remember the stages of mitosis:

PMAT

Interphase: this is the normal state of a cell. A cell spends most of its life in this state 

Prophase: DNA condenses into chromosomes, nuclear envelope around DNA begins to disappear. 

Metaphase: Chromosomes line up at the center of the cell. Centrioles move to opposite ends of the cell. Spindle fibers move across the cell and connect to centromeres of each chromosome. The centromere is the center of the chromosome. See the picture. 

Anaphase: While in the anaphase stage of mitosis the centrioles will begin to pull each chromosome into two halves called sister chromatids. Each chromatid contains the same information.

Telophase (Cytokinesis happens during this phase - it's the part were the cell splits): Finally in the Telophase stage of mitosis the nuclear membrane forms around the chromatids and they are completely located at opposite ends of the cell.

Cytokenisis: Usually after Telophase the cell will also divide its cytoplasm and pinch off into two separate but identical daughter cells. Each daughter cell is an exact copy of the parent cell before the DNA was duplicated during Interphase.