A student wonders whether removing the nucleus from a cell would result in a new prokaryotic cell. Why would this procedure fail to produce a prokaryotic cell?

Removing the nucleus would remove most of the cell’s genetic information, which the cell needs to direct its activities. A prokaryotic cell still has genetic information, usually in a region of the cytoplasm rather than inside a nucleus, so removing a nucleus does not turn a eukaryotic cell into a prokaryote. The correct choice is “The cell would lack genetic information.”

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