Mitosis vs Meiosis: Key Things to Know
While mitosis and meiosis are very similar-sounding processes, they are actually quite different — and occur for different reasons.
Suppose you fall and scrape your knee. You will likely see your wound heal over the next few weeks as your body tissue repairs itself, and that is in large part due to mitosis.
In contrast, meiosis is the reason why people often look partially look like one of our parents — as due to meiosis, they only inherit half the DNA from each parent.
Let’s take a closer look at each process.
Mitosis
Mitosis occurs during the division of body cells, which results in development, growth, and healing. After mitosis completes and the cell divides, two daughter cells emerge that are genetically identical to their original cell and have the full complement of DNA — in other words, two complete sets of chromosomes. One round of mitosis occurs every time a cell divides, and depending on the cell type, continual rounds of cell division could continue over the lifetime of the organism.
Below is the second half of mitosis, wherein chromosomes, organized bundles containing DNA, are moving away from each other and retreating towards opposite ends of the cell.
