Question

Compare and contrast meiosis and mitosis. Why don't all your cells just do mitosis or meiosis?

Answer 1

	Mitosis	Meiosis
Type of division	equational	reductional
Parent cell	one diploid cell	one diploid cell
Products	two diploid daughter cells	four haploid daughter cells
Location	somatic cell	germline cell
Function	growth of the body, repair of injuries, replacement of worn out cells	formation of gametes
#nuclear divisions	one	two
Variations	daughter cells are identical to each other and also to the parent cell	daughter cells are genetically different from each other and also from the parent cell due to crossing over and independent assortment

All the cells do not perform mitosis or meiosis because both of them have different functions in our body.

Mitosis is responsible for the maintenance of normal growth and repair of the somatic cells of our body all of which are diploid and genetically identical to each other. Variations are not required in the cell.

But meiosis which participate s in the formation of gametes produces variations between gametes and between gamete and the parent cell. This is particularly important for evolution.

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