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Metaphase (from Ancient Greek μετα- beyond, above, transcending and from Ancient Greek φάσις (phásis) 'appearance') is a stage of mitosis in the eukaryotic cell cycle in which chromosomes are at their second-most condensed and coiled stage (they are at their most condensed in anaphase). [1]
In metaphase, the centromeres of the chromosomes align themselves on the metaphase plate (or equatorial plate), an imaginary line that is at equal distances from the two centrosome poles and held together by complexes known as cohesins.
The resulting tension causes the chromosomes to align along the metaphase plate at the equatorial plane, an imaginary line that is centrally located between the two centrosomes (at approximately the midline of the cell). [49]
Micrograph showing condensed chromosomes in blue, kinetochores in pink, and microtubules in green during metaphase of mitosis. In cell biology, the spindle apparatus is the cytoskeletal structure of eukaryotic cells that forms during cell division to separate sister chromatids between daughter cells.
Just before mitosis starts, the preprophase band forms as a dense band of microtubules around the phragmosome and the future division plane just below the plasma membrane. It encircles the nucleus at the equatorial plane of the future mitotic spindle when dividing cells enter the G2 phase of the cell cycle after DNA replication is complete.
Animal cells form an actin-myosin contractile ring within the equatorial region of the cell membrane that constricts to form the cleavage furrow. [1] In plant cells, Golgi vesicle secretions form a cell plate or septum on the equatorial plane of the cell wall by the action of microtubules of the phragmoplast . [ 2 ]
It is now believed that this complex is mostly released from chromosome arms during prophase, so that by the time the chromosomes line up at the mid-plane of the mitotic spindle (also known as the metaphase plate), the last place where they are linked with one another is in the chromatin in and around the centromere.
At the beginning of preprophase, the cortical microtubules of a plant cell disappear and aggregate into a dense ring underneath the plasma membrane. This preprophase band runs around the equatorial plane of the future mitotic spindle and marks the plane of cell division and future fusion site for the cell plate.