Do you understand Mitosis?

If you do, you also know that DNA comes in pairs.

Basically, mieosis is mitosis with one exception. Instead of the DNA reproducing itself (that is, it copies itself) and the two end cells having identical copies of all the DNA, the DNA pairs divorce (! I like that term for it!), and one of the DNA strands of each pair go to one of the new cells and the other DNA strand goes to the other cell.

This gives each new cell exactly half of the DNA – and thus, they are gametes… reproductive cells waiting to fertilize or be fertilized by another gamete cell so that the cells will once again have the correct number of DNA strands.

All the cells in your body fall into one of two categories. One includes sperm cells (for males) and egg cells (for females). The other includes all the other cells, like skin, muscle, and bone. The difference is that sperm and egg cells have half the number of chromosomes as the normals cells, because they combine (sperm combines with egg during fertilization). The regular cells reproduce (copy themselves) using mitosis. This just makes an exact duplicate of the cell. However, making copies of sperm and egg cells is more complicated, because these cells are each unique and represent half of a unique human being’s genetic code. So they reproduce using meiosis. The main thing I remember learning about meiosis is that it has four phases: prophase, anaphase, metaphase, and telophase.

If you want a more detailed explanation, you might try Wikipedia or About.com, although these are probably not in simple English. Hope this helps.

mei·o·sis

NOUN:

pl. mei·o·ses

Genetics The process of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms that reduces the number of chromosomes in reproductive cells from diploid to haploid, leading to the production of gametes in animals and spores in plants.

The above is the technical definition. Back in fifth and sixth grade I studied meiosis in science and this is basically all it is:

Meiosis – SEX CELL division

When something divides, it breaks down into smaller pieces than it was originally in, since it was originally in one piece.

Hope this helps! If not, ask your teacher; that’s what they are there for! 😉

Its basiclly the production of the egg and sperm. when the cell for the egg and sperm split they only produce 13 chromosomes so that when the egg and sperm meet they could make one full baby or 26 chromosome cell that eventually becomes a baby