La división celular es una parte muy importante del ciclo celular en la que una célula inicial se divide para formar células hijas. Gracias a la división celular se produce el crecimiento de los seres vivos. En los organismos pluricelulares este crecimiento se produce gracias al desarrollo de los tejidos y en los seres unicelulares mediante la reproducción asexual. Los seres pluricelulares reemplazan su dotación celular gracias a la división celular y suele estar asociada con la diferenciación celular. En algunos animales la división celular se detiene en algún momento y las células acaban envejeciendo. Las células senescentes se deterioran y mueren debido al envejecimiento del cuerpo. Las células dejan de dividirse porque los telómeros se vuelven cada vez más cortos en cada división y no pueden proteger a los cromosomas como tal. Las células hijas de las divisiones celulares, en el desarrollo temprano embrionario, contribuyen de forma desigual a la generación de los tejidos adultos.

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Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells. Cell division usually occurs as part of a larger cell cycle. In eukaryotes, there are two distinct types of cell division: a vegetative division, whereby each daughter cell is genetically identical to the parent cell (mitosis), and a reproductive cell division, whereby the number of chromosomes in the daughter cells is reduced by half to produce haploid gametes (meiosis). Meiosis results in four haploid daughter cells by undergoing one round of DNA replication followed by two divisions: homologous chromosomes are separated in the first division, and sister chromatids are separated in the second division. Both of these cell division cycles are used in sexually reproducing organisms at some point in their life cycle, and both are believed to be present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor. Prokaryotes also undergo a vegetative cell division known as binary fission, where their genetic material is segregated equally into two daughter cells. All cell divisions, regardless of organism, are preceded by a single round of DNA replication. For simple unicellular organisms such as the amoeba, one cell division is equivalent to reproduction – an entire new organism is created. On a larger scale, mitotic cell division can create progeny from multicellular organisms, such as plants that grow from cuttings. Mitotic cell division also enables sexually reproducing organisms to develop from the one-celled zygote, which itself was produced by meiotic cell division from gametes. After growth, cell division by mitosis allows for continual construction and repair of the organism. The human body experiences about 10 quadrillion cell divisions in a lifetime. The primary concern of cell division is the maintenance of the original cell's genome. Before division can occur, the genomic information that is stored in chromosomes must be replicated, and the duplicated genome must be separated cleanly between cells. A great deal of cellular infrastructure is involved in keeping genomic information consistent between generations.

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