For a new plant to grow from a seed, cells need to divide numerous times. Daughter cells can each take on different tasks and sometimes vary in size. How plants determine the plane of cell division in ...

How did the characteristic pattern of embryonic cell divisions during animal development evolve? Analysis of the multicellular development of an organism related to animals now provides some answers.

Animals and fungi predominantly use two different modes of cell division -- called open and closed mitosis, respectively. A new study has shown that different species of Ichthyosporea -- marine ...

Before a cell commits fully to the process of dividing itself into two new cells, it may ensure the appropriateness of its commitment by staying for many hours -- sometimes more than a day -- in a ...

Animals, from worms and sponges to jellyfish and whales, contain anywhere from a few thousand to tens of trillions of nearly genetically identical cells. Depending on the organism, these cells arrange ...

A fertilized egg of an animal can be easily removed, and the process of cell division can be observed alive. However, a fertilized egg of a plant cannot be removed and observed alive since it lies ...