What is the name of the cytoplasm division in the end of mitosis? What are the differences in this process between animal and plant cells?
Cytoplasm division occurs after telophase and it is called cytokinesis. In animal cells an invagination of the plasma membrane toward the cell center appears in the equator of the parent cell and then the cell is strangulated in that region and divided into two daughter cells. This type of division is called centripetal cytokinesis (from outside). In plant cells the cytokinesis is not centripetal since the division happens from the inside. Membranous sacs full of pectin concentrate in the internal central region of the cell and propagate to the periphery toward the plasma membrane. The pectin-containing sacs fuse themselves and form a central structure called phragmoplast. On the phragmoplast cellulose deposition occurs and a true cell wall is created to separate the daughter cells. Plant cells thus present centrifugal cytokinesis. The phragmoplast has “failures”, or pores, to permit cytoplasmic communications between the daughter cells. These openings are called plasmodesms.
