Cell division is the process where a parent cell divides into two/ more daughter cells. A cell is not like a soap bubble that simply enlarges and splits in two. Cell division involves the distribution of identical genetic material– DNA – to two daughter cells. The ability of organisms to reproduce their own kind is the one characteristic that best distinguishes living things from nonliving matter.
This unique capacity to procreate, like all biological functions, has a cellular basis. Rudolf Virchow, a German physician, put it this way in 1855: Where a cell exists, there must have a preexisting cell, just as the animal arises only from an animal and the plant only from plant. The continuity of life is based on the reproduction of cells, or cell division.
Cell division plays several important roles in the life of an organism. When a unicellular organism, such as an amoeba, divides and forms duplicate offspring, the division of one cell reproduces an entire organism. Cell division also enables sexually reproducing organisms to develop from a single cell– the fertilized egg, or zygote. And after an organism is fully grown, cell division continues to function in renewal and repair, replacing cells that die from normal wear and tear or accidents. For example, dividing cells in your bone marrow continuously make new blood cells. Passing identical genetic material to cellular offsprings is a crucial function of cell division.
Cell division involves the distribution of identical genetic material- DNA - to two daughter cells. What is most remarkable about cell division is the fidelity with which the DNA is passed along from one generation of cells to the next. A dividing cell duplicates its DNA, allocates the two copies to opposite ends of the cell, and only then splits into daughter cells.