AP BIOLOGY

CELL DIVISION

THE CELL CYCLE

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Why don’t cells just stretch when you grow, instead of making copies of themselves?
A
The muscles in the cells can’t stretch that far.
B
The cell won’t be able to bring in food fast enough or get waste out fast enough.
C
The cell membrane doesn’t like the feeling of stretching.
D
The lysosomes don’t want to work so hard.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Why don’t cells just stretch when you grow, instead of making copies of themselves? The muscles in the cells can’t stretch that far.

Detailed explanation-2: -As we all grow, why don’t the cells just get bigger instead of getting more of them? Cells are limited in size because the outside (the cell membrane) must transport the food and oxygen to the parts inside.

Detailed explanation-3: -Why don’t cells just keep getting bigger instead of multiplying? Cells are limited in size because the outside (the plasma membrane) must transport food and oxygen to the inside of the cell. This can be represented by what is known as the surface to volume ratio .

Detailed explanation-4: -When one cell divides into two, both must have a copy of the genetic information. Therefore, before cell division occurs, the genes must also make duplicates of themselves so that all of the important genetic information ends up in each of the new cells.

Detailed explanation-5: -Mitosis is a fundamental process for life. During mitosis, a cell duplicates all of its contents, including its chromosomes, and splits to form two identical daughter cells. Because this process is so critical, the steps of mitosis are carefully controlled by certain genes.

There is 1 question to complete.