In this video, we're going to begin our introduction to the cell cycle. Now this image that you see down below right here is the image of the cell cycle. So every time we're talking about the cell cycle, we're really referring to this image. And so this image of the cell cycle is really just a representation of the events that a cell performs from the moment that the cell is first formed to the moment where the cell divides and replicates to form multiple cells. Now the cell cycle itself is broken down into 2 major phases.
And we have these 2 major phases color-coded here, the first one here is number 1 and the second one here is number 2. Now the first major phase of the cell cycle is interphase. And so, interphase again is color-coded in orange down below in our image, and so you'll notice, all of this region that's in orange here represents interphase. And so you can see that interphase here makes up the vast majority of the cell cycle. And interphase is really a non-dividing phase where the cell is not dividing, and instead, it's going to be, essentially doing its normal function and preparing to divide.
So it's going to be growing. It's going to be a phase for cell growth, DNA replication, and production of organelles and enzymes. And what you'll notice is that within all of interphase, again, which represents all of this right here, there are smaller subphases within interphase. You'll notice that branching off of interphase over here we have G₀, which is branching here off of interphase. But then also within the interphase block here we have the G₁ phase, the S phase, and the G₂ phase.
And so all of these are smaller subphases that are found within the major phase of interphase. And so that's exactly what we're saying down below here is that this major phase of interphase includes 4 smaller subphases, which are again, G₀, G₁, S, and G₂ subphases. Moving forward in our course, we'll be able to talk more details about each of these subphases and interphase itself. Now notice that the second major phase here is over here in blue, and this is the M phase or the mitotic phase. And so the M phase or the mitotic phase, kind of includes that word mitosis, and so you know that this is going to be a dividing phase and it's going to be important for separating the genetic material while producing multiple cells since it is a dividing phase.
And so what you'll notice is that the M phase is actually going to consist of both mitosis itself, but also it consists of another process called cytokinesis, which we'll get to talk more about what that is later in our course. But, you'll also notice that within the phase, within the process of mitosis itself, it consists of 5 smaller subphases which again we will discuss later in our course. But the whole point here is that the second major phase here is the M phase. And the M phase consists of both mitosis and cytokinesis as well. And mitosis has these 5 smaller subphases that we'll get to talk about later which are prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.
And so, this here concludes our introduction to the cell cycle and how it represents what the events that a cell performs from the moment it's first formed to the moment it divides and consists of 2 major phases. It consists of interphase, which is all of this in orange, which consists of smaller subphases G₀, G₁, S, and G₂, And then it also consists of the M phase which consists of mitosis and cytokinesis. And mitosis consists of these 5 smaller subphases, prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. And once again, we'll get to talk more about all of these different steps as we move forward in our course. This is just the introduction.
And so, I'll see you all in our next video.
