Cell division plays a very important role in the life cycle of a cell. Without cell division all living organisms would fail to reproduce, eventually dying out. In cell division, it involves two major steps: nuclear division and cytokinesis! In Nuclear division, however, it is broken into two different types: mitosis and meiosis.(1)Mitosis and meiosis are similar processes in that they both result in the separation of existing cells into new ones. They are different in their specific processes as well as in their products. Mitosis occurs in which the parent cell splits, in turn making two daughter cells that are identical. While meiosis produces daughter cells with only half the information that is contained in a single parents cell. Mitosis can occur in either the haploid or diploid cells, whereas meiosis can only occur in the diploid or polyploid with limited number of chromosomes. Some other differences that separate mitosis and meiosis is that during the process of meiosis each diploid nucleus divides it into a total of four nuclei, Now comparing mitosis when it divides it only produces two nuclei instead of four.(3) In meiosis, sex cells called gametes are produced, while during mitosis body somatic cells are produced. This then further shows that mitosis daughter cells produced are genetically identical to the parent cell, while in meiosis daughter cells have one-half of the genes from the parent cell giving each cell diversity. Therefore my conclusion is that mitosis is required for the growth and development of organisms and the replacement of existing cells, while in meiosis cells are mainly used for sexual reproduction.(5)
In the first step of Mitosis, condensation of chromosomes, prophase, and the disassembly of the nuclear envelope occur. Meiosis I or known as Phosphate I, are two stages that occur in meiosis. Synapsis occurs in this phase that crosses over were the homologues are paired, where as in mitosis neither synapsi...