How does meiosis differ from mitosis

Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Regina Bailey. Biology Expert. Regina Bailey is a board-certified registered nurse, science writer and educator. Updated August 19, Key Takeaways: Mitosis vs Meiosis Mitosis and meiosis are nuclear division processes that occur during cell division.

Mitosis involves the division of body cells, while meiosis involves the division of sex cells. The division of a cell occurs once in mitosis but twice in meiosis. Two daughter cells are produced after mitosis and cytoplasmic division, while four daughter cells are produced after meiosis. Daughter cells resulting from mitosis are diploid , while those resulting from meiosis are haploid.

Daughter cells that are the product of mitosis are genetically identical. Daughter cells produced after meiosis are genetically diverse. Tetrad formation occurs in meiosis but not mitosis. Meiosis II is not a reduction division because, although there are fewer copies of the genome in the resulting cells, there is still one set of chromosomes, as there was at the end of meiosis I. Meiosis II is, therefore, referred to as equatorial division.

Learning Objectives Compare and contrast mitosis and meiosis. Key Points For the most part, in mitosis, diploid cells are partitioned into two new diploid cells, while in meiosis, diploid cells are partitioned into four new haploid cells.

In mitosis, the daughter cells have the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell, while in meiosis, the daughter cells have half the number of chromosomes as the parent. The daughter cells produced by mitosis are identical, whereas the daughter cells produced by meiosis are different because crossing over has occurred.

The events that occur in meiosis but not mitosis include homologous chromosomes pairing up, crossing over, and lining up along the metaphase plate in tetrads. Meiosis II and mitosis are not reduction division like meiosis I because the number of chromosomes remains the same; therefore, meiosis II is referred to as equatorial division.

When the homologous chromosomes separate and move to opposite poles during meiosis I, the ploidy level is reduced from two to one, which is referred to as a reduction division. Key Terms reduction division : the first of the two divisions of meiosis, a type of cell division ploidy : the number of homologous sets of chromosomes in a cell equatorial division : a process of nuclear division in which each chromosome divides equally such that the number of chromosomes remains the same from parent to daughter cells.

Comparing Meiosis and Mitosis Mitosis and meiosis are both forms of division of the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. And now you have 23 in this nucleus. But you're still not done. Then each of these will go through a phase, which I'll talk about in a second, which is very similar to mitosis, which will duplicate this entire cell into two.

So actually, let me do it like this. So now, this one, you're going to have four cells that each have the haploid number that each have the haploid number of chromosomes.

And they don't all necessarily have the same genetic informatioin anymore. Because as we go through this first phase, right over here of meiosis, and this first phase here you go from diploid to haploid, right over here, this is called Meiosis One. Meiosis One, you're essentially splitting the homologous pairs and so this one might get some of the ones that you originally got from your father, and some that you originally got from your mother, some that you originally got from your father, some that you originally got from your mother, they split randomly, but each homogolous pair gets split up.

And then in this phase, Meiosis Two, so this phase right over here is called Meiosis Two, it's very similar to mitosis, except your now dealing with cells that start off with the haploid number.

It's important to realize that meiosis is not a cycle. These cells that you have over here, these are gametes. This are sex cells. These are gametes.

This can now be used in fertilization. If we're talking about, if you're male, this is happening in your testes, and these are going to be sperm cells If you are female, this is happening in your ovaries and these are going to be egg cells.

If you a tree, this could be pollen or it could be an ovul. But these are used for fertilization. Thank you but please tell briefly about both means in meiosis the chromosome number is half.

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