Explain the cell cycle in details?

Most cells of higher organisms follow a cyclic pattern of division. The bulk of the cycle consists of the stage known as interphase, the period of cell growth and development. Interphase begins with a period of cell growth, which is called G1. In G1 the newly divided cell roughly doubles in size and in number of organelles.

The S-phase following G1 is when the fully developed cell undergoes DNA synthesis, or replication of DNA to form two identical sets, each of which will go to one of the daughter cells. DNA is located within the nucleus in the form of chromatin, combined with proteins called histones.

The gap, or growth phase called G2, follows. Most of G2 is involved in synthesis of proteins and other structures necessary for mitosis, or in the separation of the duplicated DNA strands, and no DNA is synthesized in G2.

During mitosis, strands of chromatin condense to form chromosomes, and the cell divides. Each chromosome contains a single linear molecule of helical DNA. The actual division of the cytoplasm and the cell itself is called cytokinesis. A new G1 or growth phase follows, and the cycle is repeated.