Mitosis of the Onion Root Tip

Name _____________________ Date ___________

1. Why do we study the root tip to find mitosis instead of any other part of the onion plant?
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2. Based on you data what can you infer about the relative length of time an onion root-tip cell
spends in each stage of the cell cycle? _____________________________________________
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3. Based on your understanding of the structure of the chromosome, why might it take longer to
complete prophase than the other phases of nuclear division? __________________________
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4. How do you account for variability in the data collected from different lab groups? ________
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5. If you examined cells in the Zone of Differentiation (Zone of Maturation) would you expect to
get similar results? __________ Why or why not? ____________________________________
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6. Why did we use the pie chart to graph the data? ___________________________________
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Extension:
1. If you wanted to use the column graph how would you have to change the data table in
Excel? ______________________________________________________________________
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