What is cytokinesis and when does it occur? How is it different for plants and animals?

Question

What is cytokinesis and when does it occur? How is it different for plants and animals?

Answer 1

cytokinesis is the final division of the mother cell into 2 genetical identical daughter cells

it occurs after the M phase or mitosis

in plants, a cell plate is dividing the cell but in animal, the cleavage furrow is

Answer 2

During normal proliferative divisions, animal cell cytokinesis begins shortly after the onset of sister chromatid separation in the anaphase of mitosis. A contractile ring, made of non-muscle myosin II and actin filaments, assembles equatorially (in the middle of the cell) at the cell cortex (adjacent to the cell membrane). Myosin II uses the free energy released when ATP is hydrolysed to move along these actin filaments, constricting the cell membrane to form a cleavage furrow. Continued hydrolysis causes this cleavage furrow to ingress (move inwards), a striking process that is clearly visible down a light microscope. Ingression continues until a so-called midbody structure (composed of electron-dense, proteinaceous material) is formed and the process of abscission then physically cleaves this midbody into two. Abscission depends on septin filaments beneath the cleavage furrow, which provide a structural basis to ensure completion of cytokinesis. After cytokinesis, non-kinetochore microtubules reorganize and disappear into a new cytoskeleton as the cell cycle returns to interphase (see also cell cycle).

Due to the presence of a cell wall, cytokinesis in plant cells is significantly different from that in animal cells. Rather than forming a contractile ring, plant cells construct a cell plate in the middle of the cell. The Golgi apparatus releases vesicles containing cell wall materials. These vesicles fuse at the equatorial plane and form a cell plate. The cell plate begins as a fusion tube network, which then becomes a tubulo-vesicular network (TVN) as more components are added. The TVN develops into a tubular network, which then becomes a fenestrated sheet which adheres to the existing plasma membrane.