The relative amount of time onion root tip cells spend in each stage of cell cycle

Introduction:
The cell cycle describes the lifetime of a cell. Most cells spend 90% or more of
their cell cycle in interphase, and only 10% of time is given to cell division. During
interphase, which includes G1, S, and G2 stages, a cell grows and replicates its DNA in
preparation for mitosis or meiosis. In the case of mitosis, a cell undergoes all stages
including prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. First, the cell’s chromatin
condenses into chromosomes in prophase. Then in metaphase, the chromosomes line up
at metaphase plate and are attached to spindles and microtubules that are connected to
centrosomes at opposite poles. As these spindles shorten and move in opposite directions,
the sister chromatids of each chromosome are pulled to the opposite ends during
anaphase. In the telophase and cytokinesis of plant cells, two new daughter cells form by
having vesicles to deliver materials that build the cell wall. These daughter cells are
identical in their DNA. Cell division is crucial, in that mitosis is necessary for plant
growth and repair, and meiosis is important in making gametes for reproduction of
offspring.
In this lab, we choose to examine the cell cycle of onion root tip cells because of
their rapid division. Since root tip is one of the most actively dividing organ of the onion
plant, onion root tip cells have a shorter cell cycle because very few cells do not pass the
G1 checkpoint and stays at G0 stage, in which cells do not grow or divide. Choosing
onion root tip cells as our example will give us a more accurate overview of relative
length of time of each stage of cell cycle by eliminating out cells in G0 stage as much as
possible. The length of time cell spends in each stage of life cycle can be calculated by
the formula in the Procedure section.

Purpose: To estimate the relative length of time that onion root tip cells spend in each
phase of their cell cycle by counting the number of cells in each stage.

Hypothesis: If onion root tip cells spend most of their cell cycle in interphase, then the
number of cells shown to contain nuclei in all three cards will be the highest, because
cells spend most of their life growing and replicating DNA.

Procedure: An onion root tip cell takes approximately 24 hours to undergo a complete
life cycle. Estimation of relative length of time that these cells spend in each phase of
their cell cycle can be done by counting the number of cells found in each stage.
1. Obtain a picture of a microscopic view of an onion root tip’s tissue.
2. Count and record the number of cells in each stage (interphase, prophase,
metaphase, anaphase, and telophase/cytokinesis).
3. Repeat two more time and find the total number of cells in each stage for the three
cards.
4. Calculate the percentage of cell found in each stage.
5. Using the formula below, calculate the time spent in each stage.
% of cell in specific stage * 1440 minutes = minutes of cell cycle spent in each stage

Data:
Total Cells Counted: 263
 Data Table 1: Number of onion root tip cells counted in each card and estimation of
percentage and hours of each stage of cell cycle

Number of Cells Percent of

Total Cells Time in Each
Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Total Counted Stage (h)
Interphase 90 56 85 231 87.83% 21.08
Prophase 5 11 1 17 6.46% 1.55
Metaphase 2 2 1 5 1.90% 0.46
Anaphase 1 3 2 8 3.04% 0.73
Telophase 0 0 2 2 0.76% 0.18

Data Analysis:

Relative Length of time of each stage of onion root tip cells

Telophase
Metaphase, 1.90%
0.76%, 0.18 h
0.46 h
Anaphase,
3.04%,
0.73 h

Prophase, 6.46%,
1.55 h

Interphase, 87.83%,
21.08 h
Conclusion:
The results support my hypothesis that onion root tip cells spend most of their cell
cycle in interphase, because the frequency of a cell in interphase in the pictures is the
highest in total. Out of 263 cells we counted, 231 cells are in interphase, which counts
approximately 87.83% of total cells we counted. The percentage or the frequency of
onion root tip cells in one stage of cell cycle is directly proportional to the amount of time
an onion root tip cell spends in that particular stage, so onion root tip cells spend about 21
hours in interphase. Therefore, onion root tip cells spend most of their cell cycle in
interphase for their growth and DNA replication.
One source of experimental error is actually the pictures of the onion root tip
cells. Although these pictures are where we collected our data and based our lab on, it
was really hard for us to discern the cells, their nuclei, and chromosomes; some cells did
not even show to have any nuclei or chromosome. Therefore, we could have determined
the proportions of time spent in each stage of cell cycle not as accurately.