Mitosis

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /maɪˈtəʊ.sɪs/

Definitions

1. A type of cell division that results in two identical daughter cells, which occurs in somatic cells for growth and repair while maintaining the same genetic material
2. This process involves the replication of chromosomes followed by their equal distribution into two new nuclei, ensuring genetic consistency across cells
3. Occurring during the cell cycle, this mechanism is essential for organismal development, tissue regeneration, and asexual reproduction

Etymology: The process that splits a cell's nucleus into two identical sets of chromosomes was named in German, not in ancient Greece. The German cytologist Walther Flemming coined "Mitose" in the 1880s, drawing on the Greek "mítos", meaning "thread". Flemming had watched the chromatin inside dividing cells condense into visible threads, and the name records that observation. The Greek word itself was an ordinary term for a warp thread or a thread in weaving, so the scientific term borrows a familiar image of cloth-making. The ending "-osis" is a Greek suffix that commonly denotes a process or condition, so the term reads roughly as "a threading process." Because the word was built from Greek parts rather than inherited from classical texts, the ancient Greeks had no notion of cell division. The name is a modern coinage that applies an old word to a discovery made with the microscope.

Synonyms: cell division, nuclear division, karyokinesis, cytokinesis, replication