Describe 4 similarities between the onion cell root cell and whitefish blastula in mitosis.

There are many similarities between mitosis in plant cells, such as onion cells, and animal cells, such as whitefish blastula. The four steps of mitosis are prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase, and each of them occurs the same in plant and animal cells.

During prophase the chromosomes condense. During metaphase the chromosomes move to the middle of the cell and line up along the cell's equator. The chromosomes separate during anaphase, and in telophase two new nuclei begin to form. These processes are all the same in plant and animal cells.

One difference is that most plant cells don't have centrioles while animal cells do. Centrioles help organize the microtubules that make up the spindle fibers used to separate the duplicated chromosomes during anaphase. However, even though plant cells do not have centrioles they still use spindle fibers in the same way that animal cells do during mitosis. Cytokinesis, which occurs after mitosis, is also different in plant and animals cells. Because animal cells have a flexible cell membrane, the membrane pinches in to separate into two cell during cytokinesis. Plant cells have rigid cell walls, so a cell plate forms and builds into a cell wall that separates the cell into two cells during cytokinesis.