Saturday, March 10, 2012

Visibility of DNA during cell cycle, why visible and other times not?

During the cell cycle, sometimes our DNA is visible in the form of chromosome and at other times, it is not visible. Why does it alternate in form like this? What is going on when it is visible and when it is invisible?Visibility of DNA during cell cycle, why visible and other times not?
When the cell is getting ready to divide into two cells, it needs a complete copy of the DNA in each new cell. So the DNA is copied. Then the DNA is put in compact structures so that it can be efficiently and correctly divided between the two cells. Think of copying all the files in a dentist office - if you copied them all and then divided them up into boxes, it would be much easier to divide them between two new offices than if you just had papers strewn all over the place. A chromosome is the same idea - a compact structure that can be easily moved and accounted for.

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