‖ mitosis Biol.
(mɪˈtəʊsɪs)
Pl. -oses (-ˈəʊsiːz).
[mod.L., f. Gr. µίτος a thread of a warp: see -osis; first formed in Ger. by W. Flemming in Zellsubstanz, Kern und Zelltheilung (1882) xxiv. 376.]
The process of nuclear division by which a cell nucleus gives rise to two daughter nuclei identical with the parent nucleus; an instance of this; commonly also used to refer to the whole process of mitotic cell division, i.e. division of the cytoplasm as well as the nucleus; also, a cell or nucleus undergoing this. Cf. karyomitosis.
| 1887 Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. 163 (heading) Showing mitosis in brain of tadpole. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life p. xxii, The nuclear membrane is dissolved in mitosis and reconstituted round the new nuclei. 1891 Lancet 6 June 1269/1 The ‘mitoses’ are not of uniform size,..but present the greatest variety in this respect in one and the same tumour. 1896 Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 65 Many of the corneal corpuscles..can..be seen undergoing mitosis. 1918 Surg., Gynecol. & Obstetr. XVIII. 205/2 These cells are large and mostly polyhedric... Mitoses are found, though rarely. 1937 C. D. Darlington Recent Adv. Cytol. (ed. 2) i. 22 Nuclei divide by the characteristic process of mitosis in the course of which the whole nucleus, apart from the nucleoli, resolves itself into longitudinally split threads, the chromosomes. 1962 D. G. Cogan in A. Pirie Lens Metabolism Rel. Cataract 292 Although showing few mitoses normally, the lens epithelium may be activated into lively mitotic activity when stimulated by heat. 1970 Ambrose & Easty Cell Biol. i. 20 The actual process of cell division, however, known as mitosis, is remarkably similar for all cell types. |
Hence mitosic (mɪˈtəʊsɪk) a. = mitotic.
| 1890 in Century Dict.; and in later Dicts. |