Eukaryotic Cell Cycle

The activities of growing and dividing cells can be described in terms of the life cycle of the cell, or the cell cycle.

In cells capable of dividing the cell cycle is the period from the beginning of one division to the beginning of the next.

The time it takes to complete one cell cycle is the generation time, T. The generation time can vary widely but is often about 8 to 20 hours in actively growing plant and animal cells.