A researcher examining a root tip observes a plant cell with condensed sister chromatids, kinetochores with attached microtubules, and individual chromosomes that are aligned at the equatorial plate of the cell. Which of the following best describes what the next process will be in the cell?

Since the chromosomes are aligned at the equatorial plate, the cell is currently in metaphase. Anaphase should occur next, in which chromosomes move to opposite sides of the cell. The paired sister chromatids should separate. The sister chromatids should not remain together (as suggested in the first option) as they move to opposite poles.

Note that homologous chromosomes do move toward opposite poles of the cell during anaphase I of meiosis. Since the experiment is examining fast growing root tips, we can infer that the process is mitosis.