Meiosis Focus

Meiosis vs. Mitosis: Unlock the secrets of cell division and reproduction with clear explanations.

Mitosis happens with our body cells. All of our body cells (also called somatic cells) have 46 chromosomes. These chromosomes are organized into 2 sets, so our body cells have two sets of 23 chromosomes. When a cell has two sets of chromosomes, it is called a diploid cell. Sometimes you will see diploid cells abbreviated as 2n because they have 2 sets of chromosomes. So far, we have been talking about mitosis and diploid cells. Mitosis takes a diploid cell (with 46 chromosomes) and produces an exact copy of that cell. So, we end up with two diploid cells that each have 46 chromosomes. Remember that mitosis is used for growth and healing, as well as asexual reproduction. Meiosis happens with gametes (also called sex cells, or sperm and egg cells) rather than with body cells. When meiosis produces these new gametes, the gametes only have one set of chromosomes so they are called haploid cells. Haploid cells are sometimes abbreviated as just “n” because they have one set of chromosomes. The reason that each sperm cell and each egg cell only has one set of 23 chromosomes is because when a sperm and egg combine to form an embryo (baby), the resulting embryo (baby) has 46 chromosomes. If sperm and egg cells each had 46 chromosomes, when they combined, the resulting embryo would have 92 chromosomes – which is way too many for a human! Meiosis is used for sexual reproduction. Mitosis 2 cells produced diploid cells produced used for growth and repair only one division makes body (somatic) cells daughter cells identical Meiosis 4 cells produced haploid cells produced two sets of divisions makes gametes daughter cells non-identical mitosis Many cells in your body grow and divide every day by this process chromosome Structure in a cell’s nucleus which holds the heredity information sperm the male sex cells meiosis The process that produces haploid sex cells egg Term for female sex cells diploid Cells with pairs of chromosomes are this sexual reproduction Type of reproduction that requires the joining of two sex cells haploid Cells that do not have pairs of chromosomes, such as gametes cells DNA the molecule in a chromosome that carries genetic information crossing over pieces of homologous chromosomes are exchanged during prophase I