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 the cell’s main store of DNA, so it would lack the genetic information needed to direct cell activities and make new proteins. A prokaryote is not simply a cell without a nucleus; it still has genetic material, located in the cell rather than enclosed in a nucleus. Therefore, the procedure would not produce a prokaryotic cell. The correct choice is A, “The cell would lack genetic information.”

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