Cell reproduction: the main types

cell division | mitosis | meiosis | programmed cell death.

Cell division and mitosis are two different processes that occur naturally in many organisms. In
contrast to these two main processes, meiosis is a process of cell reproduction that usually only
occurs during sexual reproduction. The process of meiosis is important because it helps ensure that all
cells of an organism have unique genetic information and prevent the accumulation of mutations
from generation to generation. The most common type of cell division is called mitosis, which occurs
in both plant and animal cells and involves dividing a single nucleus into four smaller nuclei destined
for each daughter cell. There are two main types of mitosis: interphase and anaphase. During
interphase, the chromosomes of all the cell's nuclei line up on a single plane and then are replicated.
Mitosis is then followed by anaphase and cytokinesis, where the nuclear material of one daughter
nucleus migrates to one side of the cell membrane, while the other daughter nucleus of the same
parent cell divides in an opposite fashion and creates two daughter cells. All cellular replication
requires DNA for each chromosome to be replicated. DNA is made up of nucleotides and each
nucleotide has a particular structure. These structures contain either a phosphate, a purine or a
pyrimidine. Purines and pyrimidines are paired bases. For example, adenosine contains an adenine
base with a pyrimidine base attached to it. When RNA is used as the template for replication, it works
in reverse and the RNA strand is copied into DNA.
The second main type of cell division is called meiosis, which only occurs in animals during
reproduction.