A rare video of a Vampire amoeba
(Vampyrella) undergoing the process of mitosis. Mitosis is a process of
cell division by which an organism creates identical copies of cells.
This can be to create new cells for the growth or repair of body tissue
or, as in the case of this single-celled amoeba, to reproduce and
create a new organism that is an identical copy of the 'parent' cell.
The amoeba increases its cell volume and duplicates its DNA through a
series of phases known as the cell cycle. Since their DNA is contained
within the nucleus of the amoeba, the nucleus undergoes division as
well. You can see in the video that the process produces an exact copy
in both size and form, including all the different parts of the cell
structure, such as the 'spiky' pseudopods. If you'd started watching
the video from near the end, you probably wouldn't know which is
the 'original' and which is the 'copy'..
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