Cell Division
The mitotic division of T.brucei is unusual compared to most eukaryotes. The nuclear membrane remains intact and the chromosomes do not condense during mitosis. The basal body, unlike the centrosome of most eukaryotic cells, does not play a role in the organisation of the spindle and instead is involved in division of the kinetoplast.
Stages of mitosis:
- The basal body duplicates and both remain associated with the kinetoplast.
- Kinetoplast DNA undergoes synthesis then the kinetoplast divides coupled with separation of the two basal bodies.
- Nuclear DNA undergoes synthesis while a new flagellum extends from the younger, more posterior, basal body.
- The nucleus undergoes mitosis.
- Cytokinesis progresses from the anterior to posterior.
- Division completes with abscission.
Read more about this topic: Trypanosoma Brucei
Famous quotes containing the words cell and/or division:
“Let man consider what he is in comparison with all existence; let him regard himself as lost in this remote corner of nature; and from the little cell in which he finds himself lodged, I mean the universe, let him estimate at their true value the earth, kingdoms, cities, and himself. What is a man in the infinite?”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“If the technology cannot shoulder the entire burden of strategic change, it nevertheless can set into motion a series of dynamics that present an important challenge to imperative control and the industrial division of labor. The more blurred the distinction between what workers know and what managers know, the more fragile and pointless any traditional relationships of domination and subordination between them will become.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)