• Question: Can a cells multiply 3 times at once?

    Asked by puggy1 to Adam, Joanna, Louise S, Louise W, Marcus on 20 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Louise Stanley

      Louise Stanley answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      Hi Puggy,

      As far as I am aware all cells (apart from your germ cells – sperm and eggs) divide in a process referred to as mitosis – this is where all the DNA in the cell (46 chromosomes) is duplicated by DNA replication – all this DNA then needs to be separated equally so each cell contains the same information – this is achieved by mitosis. So one “mother” cell produces two daughter cells (the content of these cells is referred so as diploid – i.e. two copies of each chromosome). Cell division of sperm and egg cells (germline) is different and the process is called meiosis and produces haploid cells (only carry one copy of each chromosome).

    • Photo: Marcus Wilson

      Marcus Wilson answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      so when everything is going well no. However some cancers are thought to be caused by the processes louise talks about, going wrong. In these cases you get uneven amount of DNA in daughter cells.

      sometimes cells get confused and do split into three or even four. you can see them down the microscope and they look pretty weird! but usually there not very happy afterwards and die.

    • Photo: Adam Paige

      Adam Paige answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      No, I don’t know of any way a cell can divide into three cells at once either.

    • Photo: Joanna Giles

      Joanna Giles answered on 21 Nov 2012:

      I also wasn’t aware a cell can divide into three at once. It is a really interesting question, and certainly got me thinking! During Mitosis the cell will divide into two (as louise has described) and no more because the DNA is only copied once (to double up) and the cell splits into its two poles to give a grand total of two cells.

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