The midbody is a transient structure found in mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

ian cell

Cell (biology)

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....

s and is present near the end of cytokinesis

Cytokinesis

Cytokinesis is the process in which the cytoplasm of a single eukaryotic cell is divided to form two daughter cells. It usually initiates during the late stages of mitosis, and sometimes meiosis, splitting a binucleate cell in two, to ensure that chromosome number is maintained from one generation...

 just prior to the complete separation of the dividing cells. The structure was first described by Walther Flemming

Walther Flemming

Walther Flemming was a German biologist and a founder of cytogenetics.He was born in Sachsenberg near Schwerin as the fifth child and only son of the psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Flemming and his second wife, Auguste Winter...

 in 1891.

The midbody structure contains bundles of microtubules derived from the mitotic spindle

Mitotic spindle

In cell biology, the spindle fibers are the structure that separates the chromosomes into the daughter cells during cell division. It is part of the cytoskeleton in eukaryotic cells...

 which compacts during the final stages of cell division. It has a typical diameter of 1 micrometre

Micrometre

A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...

 and a length of 3 to 5 micrometres. Aside from microtubules it also contains various proteins involved in cytokinesis

Cytokinesis

Cytokinesis is the process in which the cytoplasm of a single eukaryotic cell is divided to form two daughter cells. It usually initiates during the late stages of mitosis, and sometimes meiosis, splitting a binucleate cell in two, to ensure that chromosome number is maintained from one generation...

, asymmetric cell division

Cell division

Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells . Cell division is usually a small segment of a larger cell cycle. This type of cell division in eukaryotes is known as mitosis, and leaves the daughter cell capable of dividing again. The corresponding sort...

, and chromosome segregation

Chromosome segregation

Chromosome segregation is a step in cell reproduction or division, where chromosomes pair off with their similar homologous chromosome. In mitosis, a complete copy of each one is made. In meiosis, one chromosome from each pair migrates to opposite ends of the cell and the genes are split to make a...

. The midbody is important for completing the final stages of cytokinesis, a process called abscission

Abscission

Abscission is a term used in several areas of biology. In plant sciences it most commonly refers to the process by which a plant drops one or more of its parts, such as a leaf, fruit, flower or seed...

, although its precise role in these processes is not clear. .