Our instructor told us that the bottom right slide was prophase and that the top middle slide is propase.

My question is, how are you supposed to tell between these two? I thought the top middle one would be prophase too?

 

Edited January 12, 201313 yr by Axmann8

I assume you meant the bottom right is interphase and the middle is prophase? Look at the nucleus, do you see any differences?

In the Prophase stage everything becomes more dense and genetic material should become more evident. Also spindle formation may be evident depending on how well the cell was prepared. The nucleus may be disappearing at this point.

 

In the Interphase stage, chromatin has not yet condensed and chromosomes are not visible. This is just the growth and replication stage. The nucleus should still be evident at this point, but genetic material inside will look stringy.