Mitosis and meiosis Flashcards
What is mitosis?
Mitosis is a type of cell division that creates two identical daughter cells. It is used for growth, repair, and replacing old cells. Each daughter cell has the same number of chromosomes (diploid, 2n) as the original cell.
What is meiosis?
Meiosis is a type of cell division that creates gametes (sperm or egg cells). It reduces the chromosome number by half (haploid, n) so that when fertilization occurs, the full chromosome number is restored.
How many cells does mitosis and meiosis produce?
Mitosis: makes two identical cells.
Meiosis: makes four unique egg or sperm cells.
Where do mitosis and meiosis happen?
Mitosis happens all over the body to grow and fix damaged parts.
Meiosis happens in the ovaries (females) and testes (males) to make eggs and sperm.
How does mitosis keep chromosome numbers the same?
Before a cell splits, it makes a full copy of its DNA. This way, the two new cells get exactly the same instructions to work properly.
What are the steps of mitosis?
Prophase: The cell gets ready to divide.
Metaphase: The chromosomes line up in the middle.
Anaphase: The chromosomes are pulled apart.
Telophase: The cell splits into two new cells.
How does meiosis create differences in people?
Meiosis shuffles DNA in two ways:
Crossing over: Chromosomes swap little pieces of DNA.
Mixing chromosomes: Each sperm or egg gets a different mix of the parent’s DNA.
Why does meiosis happen in two stages?
First, the cell splits once to cut the number of chromosomes in half. Then, it splits again to make sure each sperm or egg cell gets just one copy of each chromosome.
