STAGES OF MEIOSIS

Meiosis occurs only in the reproductive tissues of sexually reproducing organisms.

Mitosis consists of a single division of the nucleus.

Meiosis has two main divisions, called meiosis I and meiosis II.
Each division is subdivided into prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.

1. First meiotic division (meiosis I)

Each chromosome has been replicated prior to

prophase (like in mitosis).

When chromosomes replicate, a single strand

(chromosome) now looks like an “X” because each
line connecting in the middle (making the “X”) is an
exact copy of itself.

In prophase I: Each chromosome pair finds each other

and stays close enough for the
process of crossing over to take place.

This is when pieces of each chromosome

can exchange with the other pair, adding to
greater genetic variation.

In metaphase I: Homologous chromosomes line up in the

middle of the cell. What happens here by
chance is how they line up.

For each chromosome, it is a chance that either

the maternal chromosome ends up on one side
of the dividing line or the paternal chromosome
does.
In anaphase I: The entire chromosome is pulled toward
the poles of the cell.

One entire chromosome goes one way, and

another entire one goes the other.

The cell is now haploid with only half the

number of chromosomes.

In telophase I: Two haploid daughter cells result from

cytokinesis.

2. Second meiotic division (meiosis II)

There is no duplication of chromosomes in the interphase between meiotic divisions.

Here it is very similar to mitosis, except that half of the chromosomes are present.

During metaphase II, chromosomes line up in the

middle as usual, and they look like an “X”.

During anaphase II, they are pulled apart from

the centromere.

Each of the cells produced will contain the haploid

number of chromosomes.

As a result of meiosis, one diploid cell can produce four

haploid cells (from 2 divisions).
RANDOM ASSORTMENT of CHROMOSOMES

Random assortment is a very important source

of genetic variability.

During metaphase I, paternal or maternal chromosomes

can line up on either side.

There is a possibility that some gametes can end up

with only maternal or only paternal chromosomes,
but this is extremely unlikely.

There are two important sources of genetic variability.

One is during the random assortment of chromosomes,
and the other is crossing over during prophase I where
bits of chromosomes are exchanged when they are close together.

Independent assortment occurs here as well, as it means that the random assortment
happens independently for each pair of chromosomes. That is, the random occurrence that
happens for each pair doesn’t influence the process of random orientation of the other pairs.