From a human perspective, it appears nature has come up with some ingenious ways to overcome the obstacles it has

faced. Take the evolution of sex, for instance. Nature took a system by which parent cells reproduced simply by dividing (asexual reproduction), and altered it to allow two parent cells to combine to create offspring (sexual reproduction). For the latter process to work, however, the parent cells had to start with only half the amount of DNA, so that when they combined, the resulting daughter cell would contain one complete set: half from one parent and half from the other. This process is called meiosis. What's the difference between meiosis and mitosis? Mitosis is a stage in the cell cycle, the sequence of events cells undergo as they grow and divide. During mitosis, the nucleus of a cell divides to create two new nuclei, each containing an identical copy of DNA. (Cytokinesis is the next stage during which the cell actually pinches in two.) Almost all of the DNA duplication in your body is carried out through mitosis. Meiosis, in contrast, is the process by which sex cells (sperm and eggs) are created. While the other cells in your body contain 46 chromosomes: 23 from your father and 23 from your mother, your egg (or sperm) cells contain only half that number -- a total of 23 chromosomes. When an egg and sperm unite to make a fertilized egg, the chromosomes add up to 46. How exactly does meiosis mix and halve chromosomes? Find out through this feature, which provides a step-by-step, side-by-side comparison of meiosis and mitosis. Each chromosome has a DNA molecule which contains many genes Each human cell has 46 chromosomes = 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes For each pair of homologous chromosomes, both chromosomes contain the same genes which code for the same proteins and influence the same characteristics. However, the two homologous chromosomes may have different versions of a gene; e.g. the allele (on one chromosome may code for a normal enzyme and the allele on the other homologous chromosome may code for a defective version of the enzyme).
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Cell Division There are two types of cell division, mitosis and meiosis. Cells are produced by mitosis (almost all cells), meiosis (sperm and eggs), or fertilization (zygote). Some similarities between mitosis and meiosis are: o Before mitosis or meiosis, the DNA is replicated to form two copies of the original DNA. o At the beginning of mitosis or meiosis, the replicated DNA is condensed into sister chromatids in each chromosome. o At the end of each cell division, cytokinesis forms two daughter cells. The purpose of mitosis is to produce new cells for growth, development and repair. Mitosis separates sister chromatids -> complete sets of chromosomes at opposite ends of cell, so each daughter cell receives a complete set of chromosomes with exactly the same genes as the original cell. The purpose of meiosis is to produce haploid eggs and sperm (23 chromosomes in humans), so fertilization can produce a diploid zygote (fertilized egg with 46 chromosomes in humans). Meiosis consists of two cell divisions.

Meiosis I separates pairs of homologous chromosomes and Meiosis II separates sister chromatids -> 23 chromosomes in each egg or sperm. Different eggs or sperm from the same person have different genetic makeup. When a sperm fertilizes an egg, the resulting zygote receives one copy of each gene from the mother and one from the father. Thus, each person receives half of his/her genes from his/her mother and half from his/her father. Understanding genes, chromosomes, meiosis and fertilization provides the basis for understanding inheritance. If there is a mistake in meiosis and the zygote does not receive exactly the correct number of chromosomes, this results in abnormalities such as Down Syndrome or, more frequently, death of the embryo.