Question

A biologist examines a series of cells and counts 160 cells in interphase, 20 cells in prophase, 6 cells in prometaphase, 2 cells in metaphase, 7 cells in anaphase, and 5 cells in telophase. The complete cell cycle requires 24 hours. Match the average duration to the appropriate cell cycle stage in these cells. M phase prophase metaphase telophase 4.8 hours 14.4 minutes 2.4 hours 36 minutes

Answer 1

Here we will use the logic, which stage of cell cycle contain more cells that stage of the cell cycle will have higher duration. As the duration is more, more cell will be in a single stage and they will take more time to get passed that specific phase.

Here we can see that M phase will take more time as all the mitotic phases are inside this (like prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase).

So, the duration of the M phase is 4.8 hours.

Now we can see that prophase contain the highest number of cells than other mitotic phases (20 cells). So, the duration of prophase will be 2.4 hours.

Now among the metaphase and telophase, the number of metaphase cells are 2 and the number of telophase cells are 5. So, the duration of metaphase is 14.4 minutes and duration of anaphase is 36 minutes.