Skip to main content
A-LevelBiologyThe mitotic cell cycle9700/12 · May/June 2021 · Q191 Mark

A single skin cell was isolated and transferred to growth medium in a sterile Petri dish. The Petri dish was incubated for 16 days. During this time, the number of skin cells multiplied as a result of repeated mitotic divisions. One of the chromosomes in the nucleus of each skin cell has a telomere that contains many repeats of the base sequence TTAGGG. On each of days 4, 8, 12 and 16 of the incubation period, a single cell was removed from the Petri dish. The total number of bases in the telomere of this chromosome was determined for each cell. Each of the four cells had a different total number of telomere bases for this chromosome: 5548, 5580, 5645 and 5700. What was the total number of telomere bases in the chromosome from the cell that had undergone the most mitotic divisions?

A5548
B5580
C5645
D5700

✓ Correct answer

A: 5548

Practise more questions on this topic

Oracle Prep sorts past-paper questions by topic, so you can drill The mitotic cell cycle and see which topics are most likely to come up next.

Sign up free →

About this question

Topic
The mitotic cell cycle, A-Level Biology (syllabus 9700). Multiple choice, 1 mark.
Source
A-Level Biology, May/June 2021 Paper 1 Variant 2, question 19.

Questions and mark schemes are from past examination papers and remain the copyright of the exam board. How Oracle Prep builds its content

Related Biology questions

© 2026 Oracle Prep