Science Project, 1/29/18
Cancer and the Cell Cycle
Cancer is uncontrolled cell growth in a certain area in the body that can spread. The way we treat cancer as of now is chemotherapy, or injecting radiation into the body to kill the extra cells. Chemotherapy is very dangerous and kills people all the time, but it is the only way we know of at the moment to treat cancer. When the cancer cell isn’t checked by polymerase and gets sent through and replicates, it makes more and more of the bad cells and is unable to be stopped. Cancer keeps going through the replication process making more cells than needed and unless treated soon, will kill you.
Summary of Cell Cycle Steps/ DNA Replication
- Adenine = Thymine
- Guanine = Cytosine
- Interphase begins
- The G1 phase also known as the growth phase, is the first phase of the cell cycle. This phase is where cells and the contents of cells excluding chromosomes. Helicase is used here to unzip the double helix.
- The next phase in the cell cycle is the S phase, this is where the chromosomes replicate and consist of two sister chromatids.Genes are located in chromosomes and DNA is found in the nucleus of a cell.
- G2 phase is up next and this is where error check occurs for mutations and preparation of the cell for mitosis using DNA polymerase.Cancer skips this step and just keeps replicating without being checked.
- Mitosis Begins
- Cell division begins with prophase where the chromosomes become visible as paired chromatids and the nuclear envelope disappears. The chromatin is at its least dense state.
- The next phase of cell division is metaphase or the middle phase, this is where chromosomes become attached to the spindle fibers.Spindle fibers come from the centrioles.
- Anaphase is up next and this is where the chromosomes move away from one another to opposite poles of the spindle fibers.
- The final stage of cell division, Telophase,is where the chromatids or chromosomes move to opposite ends of the cell and two nuclei are formed. End of Mitosis
- Cytokinesis is the final stage of DNA replication and this is the separation into two daughter cells.
Bibliography
Roback, Jonathan. “DNA and Cell Replication.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 12 Feb. 2004, www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/cells-can-replicate-their-dna-precisely-6524830.
Univ, sng8. “The Cell Cycle, Mitosis and Meiosis.” University of Leicester, 17 Aug. 2017, www2.le.ac.uk/projects/vgec/highereducation/topics/cellcycle-mitosis-meiosis.
Acedemy, Khan. “Cancer and the Cell Cycle | Biology (Article).” Khan Academy, Dec. 2016, www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/cellular-molecular-biology/stem-cells-and-cancer/a/cancer.