Question

Cell Division

1. The fraction of cells in a population that are undergoing mitosis (the mitotic index) is a convenient way to estimate the length of the cell cycle. You have decided to measure the cell cycle in the kidney of the adult badger by measuring mitotic index. Accordingly, you have prepared kidney sections obtained from unfortunately road-killed badgers collected from Wisconsin. You stained the cells in the sections to make cells in mitosis easy to see. After 3 days of counting, you have found 1278 mitoses in 40,000 cells counted. Assuming that M phase lasts 22 minutes, calculate the average length of the cell cycle in the kidney of an adult badger.
   

Answer 1