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Amitosis: Direct and Simplest Cell Division Ever

Noushin Sharmili Suzana Cytology Leave a comment 1,665 Views

The cell is the simplest unit of an organism. And amitosis is the simplest cell division option for a living cell. Like every living being the cell is also divisible. In fact, the cell can divide itself. There are different types of ways for that. If a cell increases in size, that is called cell growth or cell development. But when the number of the cell is increased, that is called cell division. Cell divisions are of 3 types.

1. 1. 1. 1. Amitosis
        
        Mitosis &
        
        Meiosis

Among these 3, the direct and simplest one is Amitosis.

Amitosis

The cell division in which the cell cytoplasm divides and a simple cleavage of the nucleus occurs without any kind of spindle fiber formation is called amitosis cell division. This is also called binary fission because one mother cell diving into two daughter cells. The process is done without any kind of difficulties. A direct division of the nucleus occurs here. At first, the nucleus starts elongating itself. After that, it starts getting narrower in the middle and makes a cleavage looking like a dumbbell. Gradually the cleavage gets deeper and at a time the nucleus divides into two nuclei. Thus one mother cell gets divided into two daughter cells. Yeast cells, amoeba, etc prokaryotic organisms which are basically acellular show this kind of cell division.

Importance of Amitosis

Eduard Strasburger in 1892 said that the complex and eukaryotic cell divisions have evolved from Amitosis cell division. Amitosis cell division is really very effective for acellular organisms. A lot of prokaryotic cells depend on this method for increasing their numbers. This is a primitive type of cell division practiced by primitive types of cells. So this division gave them the opportunity to increase cells in number.

Advantages

The population can increase rapidly when the conditions are favorable.
Only one parent is needed.
It is more time and energy-efficient as they don’t need a mate.
It is faster than sexual reproduction.

Disadvantages

It does not lead to genetic variation in a population.
The species may only be suited to one habitat.
Thus diseases may affect all the individuals in a population.

Example

Bacteria, such as E. coli, reproduce asexually. So an advantage of this is that they can produce many bacteria very quickly. But a disadvantage is that all of the bacteria are genetically identical. If an antibiotic was used on the bacteria, then all of them would die. The population would be wiped out. The only way for variation to be introduced into the population is by random mutation.

Good to know

German botanist Hugo von Mohl in 1835 first observed cell division under the microscope. He worked over the green alga Cladophora glomerata.
Neurons or nerve cells conduct nerve impulses. They are highly specialized and amitotic. So, if a neuron is destroyed, it cannot be replaced. Because neurons do not go through mitosis.