Significance of Mitosis

Mitosis produces an exact copy of the parent cell, genetically identical in every respect, and this single property underlies all of its biological uses. First, mitosis provides genetic stability: because daughter cells are genetically identical to the parent cell, an organism's cell lineages retain a constant, reliable genome across countless rounds of division. Second, mitosis drives growth: as a multicellular organism develops, the number of cells making up each tissue increases, and because the new cells must be identical to the existing ones to keep the tissue functioning correctly, this growth can only happen by mitosis. Third, mitosis enables tissue repair: damaged or worn-out cells (for example, skin cells and the cells lining the gut, which are constantly dying and being replaced) must be replaced by new cells identical to those they replace, and mitosis is what supplies them. Fourth, mitosis underlies asexual reproduction, in which the offspring produced (as in yeast and Amoeba) are genetically identical to the single parent; in flowering plants, vegetative structures such as bulbs, corms, tubers, rhizomes and runners are also produced by mitotic division, and when they separate from the parent plant each one develops into a complete new individual. Fifth, mitosis is what makes possible the rapid production of large numbers of identical cells in a short time, exploited directly in …