Question

Compare the processes of meiosis and mitosis, in terms of nucleic acid and chromosome number.

Answer 1

Answer-

	Meiosis	Mitosis
Nucleic acid	In meiosis nucleic acid is divided two times- in meiosis I and meiosis II. In this four haploid daughter cells are formed. In meiosis, nucleic acid exchange occurs during meiotic recombination so that each daughter cell will have different combination of nucleic acid. Nucleic acid content o daughter cells is half than parent cell.	In mitosis nucleic acid is divided one time to produce two diploid daughter cells. In mitosis, nucleic acid exchange does not occurs so that daughter cells have identical nucleic acid with parental cell. Nucleic acid content is same like parent cell.
Chromosome number	In meiosis, four daughter cells contain only one copy of chromosomes i. e. daughter cells are haploid and chromosome number is half as compared to parent cell. In meiosis I, two cells are formed that have same number of chromosomes with parent cell but after meiosis II, due to reductional division chromosome number is reduced to half in four daughter cells.	In mitosis, daughter cells contain same number of chromosomes as parent cells as mitosis is equational division. If parent cell is diploid then two daughter cells are also diploid.