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GCSE Biology · key term
The stage before cell division in which a cell grows, increases its organelles and copies its DNA.
Used by Edexcel and OCR
Specification 2.1 · Paper 1
The stage of the cell cycle when a cell grows and copies its DNA before division.
Revise: Mitosis and the Cell CycleThe cell spends most of the cycle in interphase. It grows and copies its DNA so that there will be a complete set for each daughter cell. After copying, each chromosome consists of two identical sister chromatids joined together.
Paper 1 (Foundation), Paper 2 (Foundation), Paper 3 (Higher), Paper 4 (Higher)
The part of the cell cycle in which a cell grows, increases its number of organelles and copies each chromosome.
Revise: Cell Cycle and MitosisThe first major part of the cycle is interphase. The cell is active during this period: it grows larger, increases its number of organelles and copies each chromosome. Copying the chromosomes doubles the amount of DNA temporarily, but it does not permanently double the chromosome number.
Put interphase before mitosis: DNA is copied during interphase, not during the chromosome-separation stages.
Keep the order clear: interphase comes before mitosis. State that the chromosomes are copied during interphase, not during mitosis.
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