Ana was out shoveling snow when she slipped and cut her hand on one of those new metal drinking straws that had been carelessly discarded (shame!)

At the emergency room, the doctor gave Ana 5 stitches and told her to keep the area dry and clean until the stitches are ready to come out in several weeks.

During that time, the damaged skin will be replaced by new skin. This is possible because individual skin cells will spend several weeks making identical copies of themselves until the cut is completely healed.

What must a skin cell do structurally to divide and produce an exact replica of itself (two identical daughter cells)?

BARRIERS TABLE

Consider the following questions:

• The parent cell only has one set of chromosomes. How can it overcome this?
• If a cell keeps dividing without growing, it will keep getting smaller and smaller. How can this be addressed?
• The nuclear membrane is designed to protect the DNA. How can this be solved?
• When the cell divides, how can it ensure each daughter cells gets exactly one set of DNA?
• If the chromosomes move to opposite sides of the cell before division, what can happen to ensure they remain separate?