Cell plate 2026-10-18
A cell plate is an internal partition assembled during plant cytokinesis by fusion of transport vesicles. It grows outward to join the parental cell membrane, providing daughter boundaries and material for a new plant cell wall.[ref]
The Events of M Phase. The Cell: A Molecular Approach, 2nd edition by Geoffrey M. Cooper; Chapter 14, The Events of M Phase, Cytokinesis and Figure 14.31: vesicle fusion, outward expansion and joining the parental plasma membrane
Cytokinesis Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
Cytokinesis partitions the cytoplasm. Without cytokinesis, two cell nuclei can share one biological cell. [ref]
Cytokinesis makes physically separate daughter biological cells by partitioning their cytoplasm and completing their cell membrane boundaries. Mitosis divides nuclear material. These processes can overlap during M phase, but completion of one does not imply completion of the other.[ref]
The Cell Cycle. Biology 2e by Mary Ann Clark and others; §10.2, The Mitotic Phase and Cytokinesis: nuclear division versus physical daughter-cell separation
For an original compartment-counting example, consider a hypothetical diploid biological cell after two daughter cell nuclei have formed. Let be the number of chromosomes in one haploid set, and let be that set's unreplicated nuclear DNA amount, as in cell-cycle DNA content. Assume faithful mitosis, no nuclear DNA replication during the partition, and no loss of nuclear DNA; exclude mitochondrion DNA.
| Counting boundary | Before cytokinesis | After cytokinesis |
|---|---|---|
| Biological cells | 1 | 2 |
| Cell nuclei in each biological cell | 2 | 1 |
| Each cell nucleus | chromosomes, | chromosomes, |
| Nuclear DNA per biological cell | ||
| Nuclear DNA across all descendants |
The check is to follow the two existing cell nuclei: initially one boundary encloses both; finally each daughter boundary encloses one. The total remains two cell nuclei, twenty chromosomes and of nuclear DNA. Thus the amount per biological cell halves because the counting boundary changes, without any new DNA replication or change of nuclear ploidy. Doubling the number of biological cells need not double their combined material.
Coordinating chromosome segregation with cytoplasm partition lets descendants inherit nuclear information inside separate working compartments. Equal nuclear DNA allocations do not require equal daughter sizes or equal allocations of every organelle. The geometry of cytokinesis connects an internal allocation to the creation of two independently bounded biological cells.
