Others cells in your body contain 46 chromosomes: 23 from your father and 23 from your mother. Your egg (or sperm) cells contain only half that number—a total of 23 chromosomes. When an egg and ...

Because the centrosomes are located outside the nucleus in animal cells, the microtubules of the developing spindle do not have access to the chromosomes until the nuclear membrane breaks apart.

Each chromatid is a full length DNA molecule. The stages outlined in the following example show a cell with a diploid chromosome number of four (two sets of two chromosomes) undergoing cell division.