Alab technician is trying to determine how a certain chemical affects a group of cells. when the chemical is added to the cells, the cells are unable to break down sugar and they die of starvation. what organelle does the chemical most likely attack?
a. chloroplasts
b. lysosomes
c. vacuoles
d. mitochondria

d. Mitochondria

Mitochondria is a powerhouse of a cell. The mitochondria is a functional organelle which, helps in the cellular respiration. It breaks down the sugars present in the food molecules to release energy in the form of ATP.

In the given situation, chemical is added to the cells, the cells are unable to break down the sugar and they die of starvation, this is because of the fact that the chemical has affected the functioning of the mitochondria. Therefore, the cell is incapable of breaking down of sugars.

interphase

the period of cell growth when the cell synthesizes new molecules and organelles. the cell is not dividing and it constitutes the majority of the time spent in the cell cycle

prophase

changes occur in the nucleus and cytoplasm. the chromatin condenses to form structures (sister chromatids) visible with a light microscope and the mitotic spindle begins to form, but the nucleus is still in tact

prometaphase

the nuclear envelope fragments and the spindle microtubules attach to the kinetochores of the sister chromatids

metaphase

all the cell's duplicated chromosomes are lined up at an imaginary plane equidistant between the poles of the mitotic spindle

anaphase

begins when sister chromatids separate from each other and ending when a complete set of daughter chromosomes arrives at each of the two poles of the cell

telophase

the daughter nuclei form at the two poles of a cell

cytokinesis

the division of a cytoplasm to form two separate daughter cells. usually occurs during telophase during mitosis. this and mitosis make up to mitotic (m) phase of the cell cycle