Q.Between a prokaryote and a eukaryote, which cell has a shorter cell division time?

The elaborate, multi-phase cell cycle described in this chapter — with its separate G1, S and G2 sub-phases of interphase followed by the four stages of mitosis — is specifically the cycle of a eukaryotic cell.

• Human cells, a eukaryotic example, are described as dividing roughly once every 24 hours.
• Even the fastest example given, yeast (also eukaryotic), still needs about 90 minutes to complete an entire cycle, because it still has to pass through the same ordered phases. …

The cell cycle discussed in this chapter — interphase split into G1, S and G2, followed by the four stages of karyokinesis and then cytokinesis — is specifically the eukaryotic pattern. It exists because a eukaryotic cell has a nucleus enclosing its chromosomes, and dividing that nucleus faithfully requires condensing the chromatin into visible chromosomes, building a spindle apparatus with asters and kinetochores, and carefully separating sister chromatids stage by stage.

The examples given for how long this takes are both eukaryotic:

• Human cells grown in culture divide roughly once every 24 hours, of which the M phase itself is only about an hour — interphase preparation dominates the timeline.
• Yeast, held up as an unusually fast eukaryotic example, still needs about 90 minutes for a complete cycle. …

Method: Compare the complexity of the two division processes

1. Recall the eukaryotic cell cycle: multi-phase interphase (G1, S, G2) plus 4-stage mitosis, needed because DNA is packaged in a nucleus with a full mitotic apparatus (spindle, centrioles).
2. Prokaryotes lack a nucleus and this apparatus; they divide by simple binary fission. …