What You Learned About Cell Division Is Probably Wrong

If you took high school biology, you probably learned about cell division: a crucial process in all life forms officially called mitosis. For over one hundred years, students have learned that during mitosis, a parent cell becomes spherical before dividing into two daughter cells of the same size and shape. A new study, however, might rewrite many, many biology textbooks. Researchers revealed that mitosis doesn’t always feature cell rounding (when a parent cell becomes spherical), meaning that the resulting daughter cells aren’t always symmetrical, nor do they carry the same function. Their work is detailed in a study published Thursday in the journal Science, and holds important implications for understanding cell division in diseases such as cancer. “Students learn that when a cell divides, it will generate a uniform spherical shape. Our study, however, shows that in real living organisms, it is not as simple as that,” Shane Herbert, co-lead author of the study and a researcher at ... Read full article.