Final answer:
Lack of cytokinesis after mitosis would result in a cell with multiple nuclei, leading to abnormal cell growth and potentially disease such as cancer. Normally unicellular cells that miss cytokinesis could become too large to function properly, thereby hindering their ability to survive.
Step-by-step explanation:
Consequences of a Cell Not Undergoing Cytokinesis
If a cell were to never undergo cytokinesis after mitosis, the result would be a multinucleated cell. Cytokinesis is the process following the end of mitosis (or meiosis) where the cell divides its cytoplasm to produce two separate daughter cells. During normal cell division, mitosis is responsible for the replication and separation of chromosomes into two nuclei while cytokinesis completes the division by splitting the cell into two separate cells with their own nuclei and cytoplasm.
Without cytokinesis, the cell would have multiple nuclei within a single cytoplasm. This condition occurs naturally in certain types of cells, such as muscle cells and some fungi, which are referred to as multinucleate or coenocytic cells. However, if a normally unicellular cell missed cytokinesis, it could lead to problems such as improper cell function, abnormal cell growth, and difficulties in overall cell regulation which could potentially lead to disease states such as cancer. Furthermore, failure of cytokinesis could also result in cells that are too large, which could interfere with proper cell function due to the inability to support the larger volume of cytoplasm with a singular set of cell machinery.