Inquiry on the reproduction of prokaryotic organisms.

[MtheoryGuy]

Hello, I am new to this site (enjoying it thus far) so please correct me if I misunderstand the nature of posting.

With a name like "League of Reason" I am confident that a large demographic of the members here consist of academics or very scientifically aware persons ( I am the latter, so to any repliers I urge you to resist the urge to use any hyper-technical definitions, though I am very scientifically literate for my age). Thus I was hoping someone could give me a quick overview on how prokaryotes divide (separate, propagate, sorry I am not entirely certain of the right term).

I am well aware of the proceedings of mitosis and meiosis on eukaryotic cells. Do equal or similar processes occur in prokaryotes? If not, what does occur? I know the biggest difference between these two types of cell is the nucleus, and its absence in prokaryotes. How do prokaryotes manage to divide without one? Is the nucleus even a necessary feature of cell division?

I have read that such cells reproduce asexually by means of budding or binary fission, but was left unsatisfied with these answers. Does DNA simply copy itself and move over to the new cell copy in these cases?*

I apologize for the length of the question(s), I am just fascinated by biology and frustrated when I am left in the dark about things like this. Since I am a high school junior I will not actually star attending biology class until next year (so it is entirely possible I made a big deal out of a very simple concept, if that is the case, I apologize). So, I will be eagerly awaiting an answer from anyone with enough time on their hands to do so, thank you.

*Would this not dangerously limit genetic diversity?

 

[Homunclus]

Simply put they reproduce by mitosis. The DNA of one of these cells exist in the form of a single round shaped chromosome (well most of it) that is duplicated by a machinery similar to that of eukaryotic cells.

Actually the whole process is almost indistinguishable from mitosis that eukaryotic cells have. The nucleus really isn't a necessity since one of the first steps of mitosis at the level of eukaryots is the destruction of the nuclear membrane

Regarding the question of lack of genetic diversity: yes it would. But the thing is assexual reproduction has lots of advantages over sexual reproduction - it is less costly, faster, it allows a single individual to colonize a whole new area with little cost and very quickly (to give you an idea if you plant a few bacteria in a growth medium in a matter of hours the number of bacteria in the medium will be superior to that of the total number of human beings who ever lived).

 

[MtheoryGuy]

Simply put they reproduce by mitosis. The DNA of one of these cells exist in the form of a single round shaped chromosome (well most of it) that is duplicated by a machinery similar to that of eukaryotic cells.

Actually the whole process is almost indistinguishable from mitosis that eukaryotic cells have. The nucleus really isn't a necessity since one of the first steps of mitosis at the level of eukaryots is the destruction of the nuclear membrane

Regarding the question of lack of genetic diversity: yes it would. But the thing is assexual reproduction has lots of advantages over sexual reproduction - it is less costly, faster, it allows a single individual to colonize a whole new area with little cost and very quickly (to give you an idea if you plant a few bacteria in a growth medium in a matter of hours the number of bacteria in the medium will be superior to that of the total number of human beings who ever lived).

Thank you, I was hoping the process would be similar to that of eukaryotes (less memorizing).